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The Bucks of Wethersfield 
Connefticut 



AND THE FAMILIES WITH 

WHICH THEY ARE 

CONNECTED BY 

MARRIAGE 



Biographical and Genealogical 

Sketch 



Roanoke, Virginia 

The Stone Printing and Manufacturino Co. 

1909 



<Riu» 






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PREFATORY REMARKS. 



A 






J^ 



S these genealogical and biographical notes 
have been written chiefly for the enlighten- 
ment of my children and grandchildren, and 
only in a subordinate degree for that of my 
nearest Buck and Abbott relatives, I have 
expressed myself with rather more freedom than I 
should consider suitable for a document intended for 
a wider circulation. The chief sources from which I 
have drawn my information are the following: — A gen- 
ealogical record of the Bucks prepared by the late Ros- 
well R. Buck, of Buffalo, New York; a similar record 
of the Manwaring family, prepared by Dr. Howard M. 
Buck, of Boston, Massachusetts ; the archives of the City 
of Geneva, Switerland; the register of births at the 
City Hall of Landau, Germany; the register of births, 
marriages and deaths kept by the Evangelical Church 
of Kiinzelsau, in Wurttemberg; genealogical and bio- 
graphical memoranda prepared for me by mother 
about ten years before her death; and the reminiscences 
of Albert Henri Wolflf, which his son Philippe wrote 
for me in 1896. As for the other sources of informa- 
tion, I believe that I have mentioned them all in their 
proper places in the course of my narrative. 

The title which I have chosen — "The Bucks of 
Wethersfield" — would seem to necessitate some account 



of the descendants of Emanuel Buck by his first wife, 
and also of those who descended from Henry and 
Thomas Buck, both of whom are reported to have been 
among the early settlers of Wethersfield. There are 
two reasons why I thought it best to say little or nothing 
about them. In the first place, the former do not be- 
long to our direct line of ancestry, and the records do 
not show that Henry and Thomas bore any relationship 
to Emanuel, although it is extremely probable that they 
were related to him. Then, in the next place, the chil- 
dren by the first wife appear to have left Wethersfield 
at an early period. On the other hand, many of the 
descendants of Emanuel Buck by his second wife, Mary 
Kirby, have lived in Wethersfield continuously up to 
the present time, and the genealogical record of this 
branch of the family is remarkably complete. It is, 
therefore, as it seems to me, entirely proper to speak of 
this line of descendants of Emanuel Buck as "The 
Bucks of Wethersfield." 

I might add that up to the present time there has 
not been discovered any evidence that would warrant 
the belief that the Wethersfield Bucks and the Bucks 
who settled in the early days of the colony in Maine 
came originally from the same stock in England. On 
the other hand, there is some ground for believing that 
such a relationship may have existed between the Vir- 
ginia Bucks and the ancestors of Emanuel Buck. 

There are living to-day comparatively few descend- 
ants of Emanuel Buck and Mary Kirby who are likely 
to take any interest in the account which I have here 



prepared, and it is for this reason that I have decided 
to limit the edition of the present sketch to thirty-six 
copies. 

For the careful manner in which the mechanical 
and artistic part of the work upon this book has been 
done, credit is due solely to The Stone Printing and 
Manufacturing Company, of Roanoke, Virginia. 

Albert H. Buck. 



PART I. 



General Sketch, Chiefly Biographical. 



Up to the present time ( 1908) it has not been found 
possible to trace our Buck ancestors farther back than 
Emanuel Buck, who first appeared in Wethersfield, on 
the Connecticut River, in 1647 or 1648/ Wethersfield 
was settled in 1635, most of its inhabitants having come 
from Watertow^n, Massachusetts. So far as one can 
learn from the town records there were, in Wethers- 
field, at the same time, three persons who bore the name 
of Buck, viz.: Emanuel Buck, Henry Buck, and 

'As will be seen from the following letter, written on April I7th, 190S, by Dr. 
Howard M. Ruck, of Boston, Massachusetts, there has at last been found a clue 
which may possibly lead to the discovery of the original home of our Buck ancestors 
in England. The letter reads as follows: 

"I was examining the Kirbys of New England," by Meletaiah Ercrett Dwight. 
and found a good deal of information about the family. Among other things I found 
a lawyer's memorandum — in re some land claimed by Mary's younger brother — to the 
efTect that the latter should find out what your Cousin Buck [i. c., brother -in -law 
Emanuel] remembers about the people in Rowington [Warwickshire]. As Kirby 
Pere came to America, as a boy of twelve, in 1635, and as Emanuel was of the same 
age, it looks as if they might both have come from that neighborhood. The Kirbys, 
or Kirkbys, were an old Yorkshire family, as well as the Bucks. 

"The book is an interesting one; it gives old John Kirby's will, etc. There were 
no Bucks nor Kirbys (at least of the gentry) recorded in the Visitations as settled in Row 
ington. Warwickshire, and John Kirby evidently belonged to the gentry class. It looks, 
herefore. as if they were migrants even there." This last statement is undoubtedly cor- 
rect, as the defective registers of births and deaths of Rowington fail to furnish any evidence 
of there having been Bucks in that parish early in the seventeenth century 

[7] 



BUCKS OF WETHRRS FIELD, CONN. 

Thomas Buck. The records also mention the name 
Enoch Buck. Thus, it is stated that Enoch Buck, who 
was in court at Hartford, March, 1648, was fined ten 
shillings for irregular speeches, in court, against Rob- 
ert Rose, when under oath. Then, again, the record 
states that in 1654 a grant of land for a home lot was 
made to Enoch Buck. There is a tradition, still extant 
among the old residents of Wethersfield, that the first 
one of that name was originally called Emanuel, and 
that, when he asked for admission into the settlement, 
his petition was granted on the understanding that he 
would change his name — "Emanuel [literal meaning: 
'God with us'] being no proper name for any man to 
bear." Whereupon he adopted the name of Enoch, 
and was then admitted. Whether the tradition be cor- 
rect or not, the records of the court show that our first 
American ancestor bore at one and the same time the 
names of Emanuel and Enoch. 

The exact date of birth of Emanuel Buck is not 
known, but it must have been somewhere about 1623, 
as he testified in court in 1684 that he was then sixty- 
one years old. He was a freeman and constable in 1669 
and he was also frequently a selectman. 

Of the first three or four generations of Bucks we 
possess very little direct information. There are on 
record, however, a few facts which warrant us in draw- 
ing certain inferences in regard to their characters, 
their manner of life, and their social standing. Thus, 



BUCKS OF W I-: T H E R S F I E L D , C O X N . 

for example, Emanuel Buck must have commanded the 
respect and confidence of his neighbors, and have pos- 
sessed considerable force of character, or he would not 
have been chosen to serve as a selectman and as a con- 
stable. At the same time, he was not what is ordinarily 
termed a religious man, for his name does not appear on 
the list of those who were actually members of the 
church at Wethersfield.' 

His chief occupation seems to have been that of run- 
ning a sawmill. In addition, however, he must have 
devoted considerable time to tilling the ground and 
looking after his live stock and his crops; for in those 
early days every male member of a pioneer settlement 
like Wethersfield must have been more or less of a 
farmer. We possess no data whatever from which we 
can draw any conclusions with regard to the character 
of their amusements and their social intercourse. Of 
home comforts they certainly must have known little or 
nothing until after the first sawmill had been estab- 
lished, that is, until after 1669 or 1670; for up to that 
time only log houses were available. Doubtless there 
were, in these early years of the settlement, few busi- 
ness transactions in which actual money was handled, 
but, as time went on and as the settlements in the colony 

^If we accept the correctness of the tradition that Emanuel was compelled by 
his neighbors to assume, for a period of several years, the name of Enoch, we shall 
have no difficulty in understanding why his name does not appear on the list of 
members of the church at Wethersfield. He certainly would be unwilling, after being 
compelled by his neighbors to abandon the name which legitimately belonged to him, 
to place himself in such a position that his freedom of thought and of action might 
be subjected to further restraint. 

[9] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELI), CONN. 

became more numerous and more populous, commer- 
cial relations between them must have become more 
frequent and cash transactions more common. Stiles in 
his "History of Ancient Wethersfield" (Vol. I, p. 646) , 
says that the manufacture of pipe-staves "was one of the 
chief industries of our early history. The General 
Court in 1641, provided that the timber therefor should 
'not be fallen within three myles of the Matabezeke 
river;' which stream, at that time, was largely within 
Wethersfield bounds. It also required the staves to be 
four feet, four inches long; four inches wide, at least, 
and one inch thick. The timber used was mostly oak, 
and the staves and heads were put into bundles, or 
'shooks,' and shipped to the West Indies and other 
foreign ports; there to be used for pipes and casks, for 
rum, molasses, sugar, etc. ****** 
"In June, 1641, Wethersfield was allowed to export 
30,000 pipe-staves, and Hartford and Windsor 20,000 
each. In 1677, the name 'Pipestave Swamp,' in the 
north central part of what is now Newington, appears 
in the records, as a self-explaining title for a consider- 
able section, near the center of which a sawmill was, 
at about that time, established." The sawmill here 
referred to was established by Emanuel Buck and three 
of his neighbors in Wethersfield. It is, therefore, a 
fair inference that a great deal of this business of manu- 
facturing and exporting pipe-staves must have been 
conducted by our first American ancestor. This 

[10] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

thriving commerce must have brought considerable 
ready money into the colony of Connecticut, and as a 
result the log houses must rapidly have given place to 
structures of a more comfortable and finished type. 
This increasing prosperity opened the way for still 
another improvement of far-reaching importance, viz. : 
the establishment, in 1700, of Yale College. A few 
years later, Daniel Buck, the oldest son (born in 1695) 
of David Buck and the grandson of Emanuel Buck, 
entered this institution and graduated from it in the 
class of 1718.' As he was one of ten children, it is a 
fair inference that his parents, in order to be able to 
afYord the expense of sending him to college, must have 
possessed more ready money than was actually needed 

"A sketch of the life of Daniel liuck is given by Franklin B. Dexter in his "Bio- 
graphical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College." Henry Holt & Co., Publishers. 
New York, 1885. 

Among the later descendants of the Wethersiield Bucks, quite a number have 
graduated at Yale. David Buck, the eldest son of Gurdon Buck, graduated in 1823, 
at the age of seventeen. His younger brother. Edward Buck, Kradu;itcd in iSjt; . 
Then followed: Albert II. Buck, in 1864 and Francis D. Buck, in 1869— both of them 
sons of Dr. Gurdon Buck; Walter Buck, son of Edward Buck (Class of 1835), in 
1870; Harold W. Buck, son of Albert H. Buck (Class of 1864), in 1894; George S. 
Buck, son of Roswell R. Buck, of Buffalo. New York, in 1896; Henry R. Buck, son 
of Henry Buck, of Wcthersfield, Connecticut, in 1896. and Charles H. Buck, his 
younger brother, a few years later; and Winthrop Buck, grandson of Winthrop Buck, 
of Welhersfield, Connecticut, in 1900. 

The three sons of David Buck (Class of 1823, at Yale) graduated: the eldest, 
Stuart M. Buck, at Williams College, in 1864; and the two younger sons, Henry Hall 
Buck and Howard Mcndcnhall Buck, at Harvard College— Henry in 1875 and How- 
ard in 1878. 

Among the descendants of John Auchincloss and Elizabeth Buck (daughter of 
Gurdon Buck) the following graduated at Yale:— In 1871, Frederic L. ; in 1873. 
John W. ; in 1879, Hugh D. : in 1891, Alfred M. Coats, a grandson; in 1896, Edgar 
S., a grandson; in 1901. Hugh, a grandson; in 1903, Charles C. and C. Russell,— 
both of them grandsons: in 1908, Gordon, James C. and J. Howland.— all three of 
them grandsons. 

[11] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

for the home expenses. It is also possible that Daniel's 
father, David Buck, may have inherited money from 
his mother, Mary Kirby, who in turn had probably 
received her share of her father's estate in England. 
(See farther on, page 112). But whether these sur- 
mises are correct or not, we have a right to assume that 
Daniel's parents must have appreciated the value of a 
college education. 

It is an interesting fact, and one which throws con- 
siderable light upon the character of our early New 
England ancestors, that through the first five genera- 
tions of Bucks — From Emanuel Buck (married in 
1658) to Gurdon Buck, senior (married in 1805) — the 
men chose for their wives women belonging to the very 
best families in the colony. Of Emanuel Buck, our first 
ancestor, we only know that he married, for his second 
wife, Mary Kirby, aged fourteen, daughter of John 
Kirby, of Hartford, who died in 1677, leaving to his 
children an estate at Rowington near Kenilworth, in 
Warwickshire, England. Up to the present time it has 
not been found possible to learn anything further about 
the Kirbys except the fact that they were among the 
very earliest settlers in Wethersfield. On the other hand, 
Hinman states (on page 149 of his "Catalogue of the 
Names of the First Puritan Settlers of the Colony of 
Connecticut," published in Hartford in 1846) that 
"Elizabeth Hubbard (also written Hubbert), the wife 

[12] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

of David Buck (1690), was the daughter of George 
Hubbard, who resided at Wethersfield, but remained 
in the colony but a few years before he removed to 
Milford, then to Guilford, and afterward to Middle- 
town, where he died in 1684, aged about eighty. He was 
one of the leading men in the colony." The next ances- 
tor, Mr. Josiah Buck, married (in 173 1) Ann Deming, 
the daughter of Charles Deming, of Boston. From Sav- 
age's Genealogical Dictionary it appears that this 
Charles Deming was the grandson of John Deming, 
of Wethersfield, of whom mention is made (Op. cit., p. 
128) by Hinman in the following sentence: "John 
Deming, with William Swain, Thurston Rayner, 
Andrew Ward, Matthew Mitchell, and others, were the 
principal settlers of the town" [Wethersfield].' 

After Josiah Buck came Daniel Buck, my great 
grandfather and the grandfather of Henry Buck, of 
Wethersfield, who still lives in the old homestead in 
that town and is now (1908) the oldest representative 
of the Buck family. Daniel Buck, the youngest son of 
Josiah Buck, married Sarah Saltonstall, the youngest 



'The descendants of Emanuel Buck by his first wife do not seem to have remained 
in Wethersfield, but to have joined other settlements in various parts of the country. 
In Harvey's wo'-k on the Buck Genealogy it appears that the number of these descend- 
ants was very large, and that many of them attained positions of honor in the com- 
munities in which they lived. Not a few of them were judges, clergymen, physicians, 
and successful men of business. In the central and western portions of the State of 
New York, in Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Virginia, and Georgia, and particularly in 
Pennsylvania, there are quite large groups of Bucks who appear to be the descend- 
ants of Emanuel Buck by his first wife. 

[13] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

child of General Gurdon Saltonstall, and a grand- 
daughter of Gurdon Saltonstall, Governor of Connecti- 
cut from 1708 to 1724. Although some critics have been 
disposed to speak disparagingly of Governor Salton- 
stall, — describing him as a snob and as never forgetting 
his aristocratic birth,' — the recorded facts of his career 
show beyond a doubt that he was a man of good educa- 
tion, of earnest purpose, of great executive ability, and 
loyally devoted to the best interests of the colony. A 
fair estimate of the Governor's character should take 
account, therefore, of these good qualities of the man, 
and should not allow the minor defects — disagreeable 
as they could not fail to be, if they really existed, to 
those who came in contact with him either in his private 
life or in the discharge of his official duties — seriously 
to influence the final estimate of his character. Fur- 
thermore, it is by no means clear that the adverse criti- 
cism to which I have just referred is founded upon 
trustworthy evidence.' 

'Sir Richard Saltonstall was Lord Mayor of London, in 1597. His son, also 
Sir Richard Saltonstall, came to America in 1630, with John Winthrop, as an asso- 
ciate governor of the colony of Massachusetts. Finally, his (the second Sir Richard 
Saltonstall's) son Richard married Muriel Gurdon, a direct descendant from Alfred 
the Great and from William the Conqueror. All these and many further details, 
showing how the Saltonstalls were connected with many of the very best families of 
England, will be found in the volume entitled "Sir Richard Saltonstall" (a copy of 
which is in my possession). — A. H. B. 

'A correspondent of the New York Tribune speaks of the Saltonstalls in the fol- 
lowing terms: "Sir Richard Saltonstall was one of the earliest and noblest of the 
Puritan fathers. He resided, I think, at Haverhill, on the Merrimack. Colonel 
Nathaniel Saltonstall, a grandson of Sir Richard, was one of the judges of the court 
which tried the Salem witches, in 16')2. He was a man of vigorous and well-cultivated 
mind, great firmness of character, liberal principles, and in every respect in advance 

[14] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

By his marriage with Rebecca Winthrop, General 
Gurdon Saltonstall, the third son of Governor Salton- 
stall, gave to his descendants the right to claim that 
through both parents they had inherited an ancestry as 
honorable as that possessed by any of their neighbors in 
New England. The Saltonstalls furnished an associate 
governor to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and a gov- 
ernor to the Connecticut Colony; the Winthrops fur- 
nished the first governor to the Massachusetts Colony 
and two governors to the Connecticut Colony; and, 
finally, the Dudleys — Rebecca Winthrop was the 
great granddaughter of Governor Joseph Dudley — 
furnished two governors to the Massachusetts Colony. 
One of these two, Joseph Dudley, afterward became 
the first Chief Justice of the State of New York. 

Gurdon Buck, the oldest son of Daniel Buck and 
Sarah Saltonstall, and the last one of our ancestors who 
was born and brought up in Wethersfield, married 
Susannah Manwaring, the daughter of David Man- 



of his age. He soared above the fanaticism which heated the imaginations and con- 
sumed the judgments of the community around him, and set himself sternly against 
the tide of delusion which was sweeping away the old landmarks established by the 
early Pilgrims. Opposed to the proceedings of the court in the witchcraft trials, he 
boldly denounced the violence of his colleagues, and vacated his seat on the bench. 
A member of His Majesty's Council and of the General Court, he figured conspicu- 
ously during the stormy administration of Sir Edmund Andrus, and was one of the 
guiding spirits of the rising colony. His eldest son, Gurdon, who was Governor of 
Connecticut from 1708 to 1724. was unquestionably one of the first men in New 
England— standing at the head of the literati, distinguished for great reasoning 
powers and captivating eloquence, a profound knowledge of men and things, and 
extraordinary dexterity and wisdom in the despatch of business. His moral qualities 
were of the most pure and exalted kind." 

[15] 



BUCKS OF WETHERS FIELD, CONN. 

waring, of New London, and Martha Saltonstall, the 
youngest daughter of General Gurdon Saltonstall. 
Both grandfather and grandmother Buck were, there- 
fore, great grandchildren of Governor Saltonstall. 

Our knowledge of the Manwarings, thanks to the 
patient researches of Dr. Howard M. Buck, is now 
fairly complete. Oliver Manwaring, a mariner, first 
appeared at Salem, near Boston, in 1662. He was then 
about twenty-nine years of age and must have brought 
money with him, as it appears from the records that he 
purchased a plot of ground in that town. The date of 
his marriage to Hannah Raymond, daughter of Rich- 
ard Raymond, of Salem (1634) and afterward of Say- 
brook (1664), is unknown, but there is a record which 
states that on November 3, 1664, Joshua Raymond pur- 
chased a house, home-lot and other land in New 
London "for Oliver Manwaring, his brother-in-law." 
The marriage must, therefore, have taken place at some 
time between 1662 and the date last named. Haven, in 
his Memoir of Frances Manwaring Caulkins,' says: 
"The Manwarings who settled in the vicinity of New 
London, are said to have been noted for a sanguine tem- 
perament, resolution, impetuosity, and a certain degree 
of obstinacy. They were lovers of discussion and good 
cheer. A florid complexion, piercing black eyes and 
dark hair are described as personal traits, which are 

*New England Historical and Genealogical Register for October, 1869. 

[16] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Still represented in their descendants."' All that we 
know about David Manwaring,' the immediate ancestor 
of graridmother Buck, is to the effect that he was the 
only ««+«; that after graduating from Yale College 
in the class of 1759, he entered into business as a mer- 
chant in New London; that he had a prosperous career 
up to the time (1781) when the British burned a large 
part of that town; that the American Congress gave him 
a grant of lands in what is now the State of Ohio in 
compensation for the losses which he had suffered at 
the hands of the British; that he moved to New York 
City with his daughter, Susannah, and his two sons, 
Gurdon and David, Jr., in 1802; and, finallv, that he 
died there on the 8th of May, 1804. The name of the 
firm, Gurdon Manwaring & Co., merchants, 177 
Water Street, appears in the New York City directory 
in 1802, 1803, 1804 and 1805. In 1806 the entry reads, 
simply, Gurdon Manwaring, merchant, 177 Water 
Street. In 1807 only the address of his residence (85 
Beekman St.) is given. In 1808 the name disappears 

'In a letter which reached mc after this sketch had been set up in type, Dr. 
Howard M. Buck makes the following statement: — "Oliver Manwaring, gent., of Ex- 
eter and Dawlish (who died at Dawlish in 1672). and his wife. Prudence (Esse), were 
the parents of a younger son, Oliver. This Oliver Manwaring. born at Dawlish, 
March 16, 163.1, corresponds to Oliver Manwaring, immigrant, of Salem and New 
London. In 1903, I met Cecil R. Manwaring Clapp, Esq., of Exeter, England, a 
descendant of a later Oliver Manwaring (son of Esse Manwaring and grandson of 
Oliver Manwaring, of Exeter and Dawlish, aforesaid), who might well have been 
the 'nephew Oliver .Manwaring' mentioned in the immigrant's will." (See also p. 114.) 

'A brief sketch of David Manwaring will be found in F. B. Dexter's "Bio- 
graphical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College," Henry Holt & Co., Publisher», 
1885. New York. 

[17] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

altogether. The date of his death is not known. Al- 
though David Manwaring, Jr., did not die until 1811, 
his name appears in the directory only in the year 1803. 
Both he and his sister resided with their father during 
the latter's lifetime, at No. i Jacob Street. 

Gurdon Buck, so far as I have been able to ascertain, 
was in the shipping business. A part of the time he 
was in partnership with his younger brother, Daniel, 
but at a later date his sons, David and Charles, were 
associated with him in business, the name of the firm 
being Gurdon Buck & Sons. I have not been able to 
learn at what date he first came to New York from 
Wethersfield, but it must have been at some time 
between 1795 and 1800, for already in 1801 his name 
appears in the City Directory, both the address of his 
place of business and that of his residence being set 
opposite his name. 

My first recollections of grandfather, Gurdon 
Buck, date back to 1849, at which time he was living 
with us at our home, No. 775 Broadway, between 9th 
and loth Streets, on the west side of that thoroughfare. 
I was at that time seven years old. He was a tall man, 
of rather large frame and of a very serious countenance. 
His face was that of the typical Puritan of two centuries 
ago — earnest, thoughtful, strong. Nevertheless, he was 
very kind to me in all sorts of little ways, and won my 
heart wholly by allowing me, on rare occasions, to 
inspect and handle his outfit of blue-fish lines and squids 

[IS] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

of different kinds. He doubtless did most of his fish- 
ing in the waters around Montauk Point and Orient, 
Long Island, perhaps in company with his uncle, David 
Manwaring, of New London, at whose house he must 
often have been a visitor. The loss of his wife and his 
fortune in 1839, when he was sixty-two years old, and 
after he had retired from business, was certainly enough 
to give him a very serious caste of countenance. 
Mother's account of her impressions of grandfather's 
character, as observed by her during the first three 
years of her married life (1836- 1839), favors the be- 
lief that at that time he was a most genial man, devoted 
to his wife and children, fond of driving horses and of 
salt-water fishing, and possessing a generous disposition. 

From an examination of the New York City direc- 
tories of that period, I learn that grandfather's first 
place of business was (1801) at No. 181 Front Street; 
his residence being at No. 42 Beekman Street. In 1802 
the entry in the directory reads: "Gurdon & Daniel 
Buck, merchants, 181 Front St." In 1803, 1804, 1805 
and 1806, the business address was 84 South Street. In 
1807 it was given as 183 Front Street. During these 
years grandfather appears to have changed his resi- 
dence twice — first, to No. 5 Gold Street, and then (in 
1807) to 54 Fair Street (? named, later, Fulton St.). 
At a still later date he removed to No. 113 Liberty 
Street. 

In 1838 grandfather built at Fort Washington, on 

[19] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

the height overlooking the Hudson River, for use as a 
summer residence, the house which is shown in the 
accompanying not very good photograph. Mother and 
father, with their infant daughter, Amelia, spent one 
summer in this house before it passed out of grand- 
father's possession. The house was still standing at the 
time when I last visited that part of the city (1904), 
although it is likely to be torn down at any moment to 
permit the opening of a new street (i8oth St.), or to 
make room for structures of a more substantial charac- 
ter.' The growth of trees on the west front of the house 
was then so luxuriant that the view was entirely shut 
out, but in grandfather's time the outlook over the Hud- 
son River and the Palisades must have been most beauti- 
ful. For a period of ten or fifteen years — in the seven- 
ties and perhaps later — the house was owned and lived 
in by Charles O'Connor, in his day one of the most 
famous of New York's lawyers.' 

In 1836 or 1837 grandfather retired from business, 
leaving the management of it to his sons, David and 
Charles. The firm name remained as before, Gurdon 
Buck & Sons, but I have not been able to ascertain 
whether or not any part of the business was conducted 

^It was torn down in 1905. 

'Farther on, in Part II, will be found an interesting account (by Gurdon S. 
Buck) of the extraordinary manner in which a small portion of this property has 
reverted to the descendants of Gurdon Buck after the lapse of nearly three-quarters 
of a century. 

According to the investigations made by my brother Gurdon, in 1901, grandfa- 
therownedat that time (1838) over one hundred separate plots of ground on Manhat- 
tan Island. 

[20] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D , CONN. 

in New York after grandfather's retirement. What is 
known certainly is, that in 1837 or 1838 both the sons 
were living in New Orleans, where, at some earlier 
date, a branch of the business had been established. In 
common with many other mercantile houses, the firm of 
Gurdon Buck & Sons experienced in 1838 very serious 
losses. In the account just referred to (see page 44) 
it is stated how the disaster which overtook the firm led 
to grandfather's loss of his private fortune. No record 
can be found of his having gone through the legal for- 
malities of an assignment for the benefit of hiscreditors; 
so we are forced to conclude that the whole affair was 
disposed of in a private manner. He seems to have given 
up everything that he possessed to his creditors; and, 
as the amount thus realized did not suffice to extinguish 
the indebtedness, his son, Dr. Gurdon Buck, abandoned 
to them the fine residence on Chambers Street, which 
his father had presented to him shortly after his return 
from Europe with his bride (1836). 

During the last ten years of his life grandfather 
occupied some position of trust in the United States 
Customs Office here in New York. A knowledge of the 
manner in which grandfather played his part in this 
humbler position in life came to me in an unexpected 
manner in the summer of 1867. Upon arrival at the 
dock, in New York, after a short trip abroad, I was 
placed in charge of a somewhat elderly U. S. Customs 
Inspector. Before proceeding to examine the contents 

[21] 



BUCKS OF WETHERS FIELD, CONN. 

of my trunk, he said: "Your name, 1 observe, is Buck. 
Are you perhaps a relative of the late Gurdon Buck?" 
I replied that I was a grandson. His face brightened 
and he said: "The old gentleman was our chief, and 
we thought very highly of him." This remark did not 
make a very strong impression upon me at the time, but 
in recent years, since 1 have begun to reflect upon vari- 
ous events in the lives of my immediate ancestors, I 
have come to recognize that this testimony, given spon- 
taneously by one of grandfather's former associates, 
possesses exceptional value for all his descendants. 

Gurdon Buck died on August 4th, 1852. The Com- 
mercial Advertiser, in its issue of August 6th, publishes 
the following brief obituary notice: 

"Burial of an Old Resident.— The funeral of the 
late Gurdon Buck took place yesterday afternoon from 
his late residence in Brevoort Place." His remains were 
followed to the place of interment by a large number of 
our old merchants, who knew and respected the 
deceased. There are many still living who recollect the 
old mercantile firm of G. & D. Buck, a few years ago 
one of our largest commercial houses. Both partners 
of that firm are now sleeping in death. Mr. Gurdon 
Buck lived to the age of 73 [74], and it is but a few days 
since we saw him almost as active as in the days of his 
youth, and bidding fair for years of enjoyment amid the 
society of his family and friends. He has been cut oflf 



'The 



name given to lOlh Street between IJroailway anil University Place. 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D , CONN. 

by dysentery, after a few days' illness. At the time of 
his death he was a member of the Mercer Street Pres- 
byterian Church." I might add that he was also at one 
time a director in the Bank of New York, in those days 
one of the leading banks of the city. 

Dr. Gurdon Buck, the second son of the last named, 
and my father, was given a good school education 
(including Latin and the ordinary course in mathe- 
matics), and was then taken into the business house of 
G. & D. Buck, as a clerk. The work, however, proved 
distasteful to him, and his father then gave his assent 
to the proposition that he should fit himself for the 
practice of medicine. Upon the termination of his 
course of studies at the College of Physicians and Sur- 
geons, from which institution he received the degree of 
M. D. in 1830, he entered the New York Hospital on 
the medical side, and served consecutively as junior as- 
sistant, senior assistant, and house physician, during the 
following two years. Then, before assuming the duties 
of private practice, he spent about two years in Europe 
( 1 83 1 to 1 833 ) , visiting the hospitals of Vienna, Berlin, 
Paris and London. It was at this time, while on a visit 
to Geneva, Switzerland, that he made the acquaintance 
of Henriette Elisabeth, second daughter of Albert 
Henri Wolflf, and afterward married her. At first, her 
parents were not willing that she should make her home 
in that far-ofif country of America, and father was 
obliged to return to New York without having secured 

[23] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D , CONN. 

the desired acceptance of his offer. Nearly three years 
later, however, he crossed the ocean a second time and 
met with a better reception. The couple were married 
on the 27th day of July, 1836. During the following 
three months they traveled over the continent, visiting 
various places of interest, and then sailed from Liver- 
pool for New York early in November, on the sailing 
ship, "Virginian," a vessel of only five hundred tons. 
Mother's account of this trip and of her first impres- 
sions upon arriving at father's home in Liberty Street, 
will be found in one of the volumes of my scrap-books. 
Three or four other letters, written by her to her parents 
at later dates, will also be found there.' The atmos- 
phere of her new social surroundings was very differ- 
ent from that in which she had previously spent her 
life, and she evidently — so far as one can judge from a 
perusal of these letters — experienced very great diffi- 
culty in adapting herself to these strange conditions. 
She speaks of father's devoted love for her and of the 
untiring kindness shown to her, not only by grandfather 
and grandmother and the brothers and sisters of her 
husband, but also by the various friends and relatives 
of the Bucks. Nevertheless, it stands out plainly in 
every one of these letters that mother continued to have 
for a long time an intense longing to see her parents, 
her sisters and her brother, and her beloved Swiss 

'There was a large collection of these early letters, but I destroyed nearly all 
of them for fear that they might convey a wrong impression to the minds of later 
generations of Bucks. 

[24] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

mountains. Grandfather presented to them a comfort- 
able home in what was then one of the best residence 
portions' of the city, and soon (1838) her first-born 
child claimed a large share of her attention. But these 
things, which would have given a full measure of hap- 
piness to a young American wife, were not sufficient 
materially to diminish the intensity of mother's longing 
for Switzerland. I am unable to say for how long a 
period this state of mind continued, but it certainly 
lasted for several years. Father had fully expected to 
return with her soon to Geneva for a short visit to her 
old home, but grandfather's loss of fortune upset all 
their plans. As a matter of fact, mother did not revisit 
Geneva until 1857, — that is, nearly twenty-one years 
after her marriage, — and during this long interval her 
father, to whom she was specially attached, had died 
(1848). 

Of father's professional career I will say very little; 
the scrap-books contain many notices that deal with 
this very point, and I have introduced copies of the 
more important of these farther on in this volume. 
(See page 48.) For several years I assisted him 
at all his more important operations in private prac- 
tice, and, therefore, I had ample opportunities for 
estimating the degree of his skill and judgment in the 
performance of this work. He was bold, but not reck- 



*No. 74 Chambers Street, on the south side, about one hundred feet to the west 
of Broadway. The site is now occupied by an extension of the Chemical Bank. 

[25] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

less, a thoroughly good anatomist, full of resources for 
overcoming the obstacles encountered, skilful in the 
handling of instruments, — in spite of a degree of near- 
sightedness which compelled him to bring his face in 
very close proximity to the field of operation, — unre- 
mitting in his watchfulness of the effects of the anaes- 
thetic upon the action of the patient's heart and lungs, 
minutely careful in his final dressing of the wound, and 
never abating his interest in the after-treatment until 
all need for his further services had ceased. He made 
relatively few contributions to medical literature, and 
these were written in the most condensed style pos- 
sible. As a teacher at the bedside — when he made his 
rounds with the students through the surgical wards of 
the New York Hospital and of St. Luke's Hospital, he 
was most clear and practical. He never lectured at the 
medical college, and I always believed that he had a 
positive dislike for speaking in public. The thing 
which brought him considerable fame among medical 
men in the country generally, and abroad, was his earn- 
est and persistent advocacy of the usefulness of employ- 
ing traction (by weight and pulley) in the treatment of 
fractures, particularly of the thigh. The idea of using 
traction in this manner was not originated by him; it 
had already been put in practice by (if I remember 
rightly) Dr. Physick, an American surgeon of great 
eminence in his day. But the profession generally did 
not seem to think the method one of any particular 

[2(i| 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

value, and, consequently, it fell into disuse. Thanks to 
father's efforts, however, it soon became the established 
method of treating fractures of the thigh, and since then 
surgeons generally, at least on this side of the Atlantic, 
have been in the habit of speaking of it as "Buck's 
method." 

Father gained additional reputation by the success 
which he had in plastic surgery, that is, in the repair of 
parts of the surface of the body which had been dam- 
aged and distorted by burns or mechanical injuries of 
any kind. At the close of the Civil War some of his 
friends among the army surgeons sent to him two or 
three cases of soldiers whose faces had been very much 
damaged by gunshot wounds. In one of these men the 
greater part of the nose, the upper lip and the adjacent 
cheek had been destroyed, and the poor fellow pre- 
sented such a repulsive spectacle that everybody 
shunned him. For a period of about two years, as 
nearly as I can recollect, father persevered in his efforts 
to reconstruct the missing parts. Operation followed 
operation at intervals of two or three months, for it was 
found impossible to transpose at one time, to the de- 
nuded area, more than a comparatively small patch of 
healthy skin. Finally, all these efforts were crowned 
with success; the man had a new nose, a full upper lip, 
and an entire cheek. At the time when he was dis- 
missed to his home his face presented a very lumpy and 
uneven appearance; in fact, he was anything but an 

[27] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

attractive-looking man. But, in the course of the next 
two or three years, all these grosser irregularities dis- 
appeared, and it could then be seen how marvelously 
well father had succeeded in solving the difficult prob- 
lem presented to him. In the meantime, the man had 
married and was leading a happy and useful life as a 
farmer. 

Father's early education, the heavy financial burden 
which he had to carry for so many years after grand- 
father's loss of fortune, and the chilling atmosphere of 
the Presbyterian Church, to which he belonged, all 
tended to intensify the seriousness of his naturally earn- 
est character and to give him an e.xpression of sternness 
and severity — traits which he really did not possess. 
Occasionally he would throw ofif this habitual mask of 
reserve and sternness, and display, for a few brief mo- 
ments — alas! they were of rare occurrence — a most gen- 
ial and sympathetic character. Although he has been 
dead for over twenty-seven years, 1 am conscious that it 
is only now that I am at last sufficiently far removed 
from the impressions of my life at father's home to ana- 
lyze correctly his character and the motives of his ac- 
tions. He had a profound sense of duty; so profound 
that it overpowered all the other elements of his charac- 
ter — his warm-heartedness, his keen sense of fun, and 
his love of travel. As I was the oldest son, he felt very 
strongly the duty which rested upon him to bring me 
up in the ways of righteousness. Hence, many were 

[28] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

the occasions upon which I was told to go to my room 
and meditate for an hour upon the sinfulness of what I 
had done or had failed to do, and at the end of each 
such period of meditation I never failed to receive the 
drubbing which all true Puritan fathers of that day 
believed to be essential to the welfare of their growing 
sons. Morning prayers and evening prayers every day; 
Wednesday evening and Friday evening meetings at 
the church ; Sunday-school instruction on Sunday morn- 
ings, followed by attendance upon two services at the 
church; then, finally, on Sunday evening, — the worst 
thing of all, at least to me, — the committing to memory 
and recital of a hymn and eight or ten verses of Scrip- 
ture — this was the routine course to which we older 
children (my two sisters and I) were subjected fifty 
years ago, our parents believing fully that only in this 
way could we be taught to love God and eschew evil. 
If anybody, in those days, had the independence to 
think and act differently, he was very likely to be set 
down (at least by the Presbyterians) as an ungodly 
man or a "child of the world." Is it to be wondered at 
that, for so many years, I should have found it impos- 
sible to do full justice to the good points in father's 
character? 

Before dismissing this subject altogether I want 
to place on record a statement of what father and 
mother did when grandfather lost his fortune. As I 
said before, I was never able to obtain from father any 

[29] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

account of this failure; my knowledge of the circum- 
stances is based almost entirely upon conversations 
which I had with mother upon this subject. Shortly 
after the disaster occurred, father came to the conclu- 
sion that it was his duty to turn over the house and lot 
which grandfather had presented to him, to grand- 
father's creditors. He accordingly gave up the prop- 
erty; and he must have done so with mother's full ap- 
proval, for all through his life it was his invariable 
habit to consult with her in regard to every step which 
he proposed to take. His strict Puritan conceptions of 
right and wrong would not allow him to stop even here ; 
he considered himself bound to pay, from time to time, 
what he could, in actual money, until the last dollar of 
grandfather's indebtedness had been paid. As nearly 
as I can recollect, this final payment was not made until 
1867 or 1868 — i. e., fifteen years after grandfather's 
death. In other words, father carried this burden of 
debt almost entirely upon his own shoulders — his three 
brothers not being sufficiently prosperous to aid very 
greatly — for a period of about twenty-eight years. Al- 
though for many years I could not bring myself to be- 
lieve that father was morally obligated to make such 
sacrifices for the preservation of grandfather's honor, 
I must perforce admit that the act is one which re- 
dounds greatly to his credit, and in which his descend- 
ants can take greater pride than in the distinction which 
he gained as a surgeon. 

[30] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

With the death of Dr. Gurdon Buck there came to 
an end the strictly Puritan portion of our ancestry, un- 
broken through six generations. Through father's mar- 
riage to Henriette Elisabeth Wolfif, of Geneva, Swit- 
zerland, foreign blood, partly German and partly 
French, was added to the stock. I have already said 
something about mother and her early married life. I 
will now add a few remarks about her more marked 
characteristics. In the first place, she was an excellent 
pianist, as were, indeed, all the other members of her 
family with the exception of her brother Philippe, 
whose musical ability was only of a mediocre order. 
She could read the most difficult compositions at sight, 
and her execution was almost faultless. Her younger 
sister Jennie, Madame Richard Monsell, of Neuchatel, 
was not only an excellent pianist — the most brilliant 
one of the family — but also a composer of no small 
merit. She possessed, besides, considerable artistic 
talent, as may be judged by the portraits which she 
drew of her brother and her grandmother Hauloch (see 
accompanying photographic copies). Uncle Philippe, 
speaking of her gift for drawing in one of his letters to 
me, says: "She married an excellent and learned theo- 
logian who cared nothing for art in any shape, had no 
sense for it, and therefore, she gave it up." I can re- 
member well how grandmother Wolfif, then nearly 
seventy years of age, used to put on her spectacles and 
play duets at the piano, with one or the other of her 

[31] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

daughters, with the greatest facility. This music was a 
constant source of enjoyment to her American grand- 
children, and such a scene could scarcely at that time 
( 1857) have been duplicated in any part of New Eng- 
land or New York. Another strong point in mother's 
character was her remarkable executive ability. When 
it became known that she was about to visit Europe 
with all her children — father was not able to accom- 
pany us — various friends and relatives expressed a de- 
sire to have their children join the party. Some of these 
applications were accepted, and in this way mother 
found herself, on arriving in France, at the head of a 
party of seven young people, all of them under twenty 
years of age, and two of them aged respectively seven 
and nine years of age.' For more than a year she kept 
this small caravan of youthful Americans — la grande 
famille Americaine, as they were often called — together 
in a state of harmony, health and contentment; found 
suitable French, drawing and music teachers for the 
several groups; looked after their clothing outfits and 
their small stores of pocket money; and gave them all 
the traveling about Switzerland that was good for 
them. Very few mothers, I am confident, would, in 
these days, be willing or able to perform a like feat. In 
all our excursions on foot among the Alps or the Jura 
mountains, it was never she who showed any signs of 

^Matthew B. DuBois, a son of Dr. Abram DuBois, a distinguished physician of New 
York City and one of father's intimate friends, and Fannie Howe, the only daughter of 
Edmund G. Howe, a banker in Hartford, Connecticut, were our constant companions on 
this trip. 

[32] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

physical exhaustion. A few years later, toward the 
close of the Civil War, she was invited to serve on the 
Auxiliary Women's Committee of the United States 
Sanitary Commission, and in this capacity she gave 
efficient aid in securing a remarkable success for the 
great fair which was held at that time in New York 
for the benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers. Over 
and over again, between 1837 and 1870, she was instru- 
mental in finding employment for the Swiss men and 
women who had migrated to this country in the hope 
of bettering their condition. And so, finally, in the 
midst of so much useful activity — and largely, I have no 
doubt, on account of it — she became entirely reconciled 
to her life in this, her adopted country, and nobody 
would have suspected, unless it were for a slightly for- 
eign accent in her speech, that she was not a native 
American. Indeed, her knowledge of English was ex- 
ceptionally thorough. She not only wrote the language 
well, but she was able to point out almost immediately 
any defects that existed in the writings of other people. 
Errors in grammar, the more or less incorrect use of 
certain words, clumsily framed sentences, presentation 
of ideas or facts in an illogical order, etc. — all such 
deficiencies were quickly noted by her, and she never 
seemed to experience any difficulty in finding the word 
or the sentence needed to convert the faulty into good 
English. As I had received little or no training of 
this nature in the schools which I attended, and prac- 

[33] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

tically none at all at college, I feel as if I owed mother 
a heavy debt of gratitude for the pains which she took, 
in the earlier years of my professional life, in pointing 
out to me my deficiencies in the use of the English lan- 
guage. 

The Wolffs came originally (sixteenth century) 
from the small walled town of Kiinzelsau, in the present 
kingdom of Wiirttemberg. The first member of the 
family who gained any distinction was Philippe Hein- 
rich Wolfif, who in 1761, at the age of eighteen, ob- 
tained (after six years of systematic preparation) from 
the Archbishop Elector of Mayence and Wiirtzburg — 
the only authority who could, at that early period of 
educational facilities in the department of music, have 
issued such a testimonial — a diploma of merit as a mu- 
sician." At a later period he took up his residence first 
at Strasbourg and then at Landau. His wife's name 
was Catherine Elisabeth Keller. While in Landau he 
held the position of Kapellmeister in the Regiment of 
Waldner. At the same time he must have commanded 
the respect and, to a certain extent, the friendship of 
the Due de Deux- Fonts (Zweibriicken), who was at 
that time in command of the fortress at Landau, and 
who later (1805), under the title of Maximilian I 
Joseph, became King of Bavaria (the first king of that 
country) ; for, when I examined (1891) the register of 



'This diploma is now in the possession of John Elliott Wolff, Professor of Pet- 
rography at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

[34] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

births in the Town Hall at Landau, I found, opposite 
grandfather's name, the following memorandum in 
French : "Dans /'absence du pere avec rarmee, le Due 
de Deux-Ponts s'est presente comme temoin.'" The 
date of Grandfather Wolff's birth is April 28, 1778. 
Of the four children of Philippe Heinrich Wolff — 
three sons and one daughter — ^the oldest, Louis, became 
a captain of a French man-of-war, and was eventually 
appointed by Napoleon, after the conquest of Portugal, 
an admiral of the Portuguese fleet. The second and 
third sons, Jean Philippe and Albert Henri (my 
grandfather), were compelled by the situation of affairs 
in Landau, and indeed in France generally, to enter the 
French army in 1792. After fifteen consecutive years of 
military service (the greater part of the time in the 
corps of music), in nearly every country of Continental 
Europe except Russia, they settled permanently in 
Geneva, Switzerland — at that time under French rule. 
Many anecdotes about these brothers, who served for 
so many years in the French army, will be found re- 
corded in the "reminiscences" of Uncle Philippe, 
which are preserved in my scrap-books. I have also 
introduced some of these in the present sketch. (See 
page 67.) 

In 1807 grandfather married Amelie Antoinette, 
daughter of Antoine Hauloch and Frangoise Elisabeth 
Barral, his wife. Of the Haulochs, I have been able 

^"Owing to the abstnce of the child's father on military duty the Duke de Deux- 
Ponts presented himself at the baptism, with the family, as a witness." 

[35] 



BUCKS OF WETHERS FIELD, CONN. 

to learn very little beyond the facts that Antoine's father 
came from Strasbourg and that he himself was a mer- 
chant. At one time in his career he must have stood 
high in the esteem of the community, for Dufour, Arch- 
iviste of Geneva, speaks of him in his report as having 
been the financial agent ("caissier national") of the 
Swiss Government at Geneva." Toward the end of his 
life, however, he lost the greater part of his fortune 
through bad investments. 

The Barrals' came originally from the south of 
France. The first ancestor of this name, of whom we 
can find any certain record, was Henri Barral, who 
died at some time previous to 1 1;86. His son, Maurice, 
who was married to Marie Perrot in the Cathedral of 
St. Pierre, at Geneva, on December 3d, 1581, made 
some provision in his will (registered October 27th, 
1589) for aiding French refugees. It seems likely, 
therefore, that both he and his father were driven out 
of France by the same religious persecutions which 
forced John Calvin to leave that country (1536) and 
take refuge in Geneva. In iji;i; Jean Baptiste, a great 
grandson of Maurice, married, as his second wife. 
Rose, the daughter of Jean Marc Charpillier, a native 
of Geneva, and a sister of Frani^ois Charpillier. It was 
their daughter, Frangoise Elisabeth Barral, who, in 

^According to the statement of his grandson, Philippe WoliT, the large sum of 
money spent upon the famous Simplon road (amounting to thirty millions of francs) 
passed through his hands during his term of office. 

"They are also spoken of as the Rarralis, as if the name were of Italian origin, 
but Dufour is confident that this is an error and that the correct term is Barral. 

[3«i] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

1784, married Antoine Hauloch; and it is stated in 
the record that her cousin, Abraham Cherbuliez," the 
well-known bookseller of Geneva and the grandfather 
of Victor Cherbuliez, the distinguished French novel- 
ist, was one of the witnesses of the marriage ceremony. 
I find, in the Century Dictionary, the statement that 
Jean Jacques Rousseau was a distant relation of the 
Cherbuliezs, but up to the present time I have not 
been able to ascertain what was the precise nature of 
this relationship. 

According to the statements of Grandmother Wolflf, 
her mother, Mrs. Antoine Hauloch, was quite devoted 
to worldly pleasures in her youth and in the earlier 
part of her married life. Mondaines (worldlings) 
was the term applied to such people by the relatively 
small circle of Christians who frequented the Ora- 
toire and the church organization controlled by Rev. 
Cesar Malan; it simply meant that those who were 
thus designated considered it right and proper to de- 
vote a fair share of their time to dancing, private 
theatricals, literary entertainments, and the enjoyment 
of music. Madame de Stael, for example, was a typ- 
ical mondaine, and so, too, were Voltaire and Rous- 
seau. During the last decade of the eighteenth cen- 
tury and the first ten or fifteen years of the nineteenth 
there was a very active social life in Geneva and the 
neighboring villages, and Madame Hauloch was a 

'This is simply a different spelling of the name Cbarpillier. — A. H. B. 

[37] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

constant participant in these pleasures. There came 
a time, however — somewhere between 1805 and 181 5, 
as nearly as I can learn — when many Genevese felt 
moved to adopt a more distinctly religious life. They 
went even farther than this, for they declared that 
Voltaire and Rousseau were the enemies of Chris- 
tianity, and that the true followers of Christ must, 
therefore, cease to associate with them. It is not sur- 
prising, then, that Madame Hauloch, who, about this 
time, had been led to join the evangelical party, should 
have yielded a willing assent to the doctrine that it 
was wrong for a Christian to have in his or her pos- 
session the printed books, or even the written letters, 
of such "wicked authors" as Voltaire and Rousseau. 
And so it came about that our great grandmother 
committed to the flames letters from both of these 
writers which we, to-day, would have cherished as 
valuable heirlooms. 



[38] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN 



PART II. 

ADDITIONAL MEMORANDA RELATING 
TO THE BUCKS. 



Extract Relating to the Establishment of Sawmills at 
Wethersfield, Connecticut. 

[Pages 640 and 641 of Vol. I of Stiles' "Ancient Wethersfield."] 



It is probable that the first sawmill in Wethers- 
field was built by Thomas Harriss, of Hartford. In 
October, 1667, the General Court granted him forty 
acres of land, east of the three-mile lots, on a stream 
in what is now the northwest corner of Eastbury — 
with liberty to build a "Sawe Mill" thereon. * * * 
This sawmill was on the south side of "Saw-Mill 
River, commonly called Hoccanum River," near 
"Spar-Mill Swamp." 

The next sawmill in the township was at Pipe- 
Stave Swamp, in what is now Newington. This swamp 
was so called because of the great number of staves 
split out at that place for pipes and hogsheads. On 
the 25th of October, 1677, the town granted to Eman- 
uel Buck, John Riley, Samuel Boardman, and Joseph 
Riley, all of the village of Wethersfield, twenty acres 
of land, each, "about Pipe-Stave Swamp" (in New- 

[39] 



BUCKS OF WETHERS FIELD, CONN. 

ington), with "sufficient ponding, on condition that 
they build a sawmill thereon, before the last of Sep- 
tember next." They were also given liberty to take 
timber from the common lands. They were to sell 
boards at five shillings per hundred and "slit-work" 
by "the rule of proportion." This was when the 
lumber was delivered at the house of the purchaser; 
at the mill, the price was four shillings per hundred. 
Should the town see cause, sawing was to cease at 
the end of twelve years. The land was laid out by 
Hugh Welles, Sergeant John Nott, Sergeant John 
Deming and Joseph Edwards. The mill was built 
very soon thereafter, as it is mentioned in a town 
vote of March, 1680, when Buck was granted thirty 
acres more "at the saw-mill." It is also evident, from 
this vote, that the town had not — at the end of the 
probation period of twelve years — seen cause why the 
sawing should cease. 



"THE OLD ELM AT BUCK'S CORNER." 

IPage 710 of Stiles" "Ancient Wethersfield." Conn. New York, 19(T4.| 



"In the year 1776 the grandmother of Mr. Henry 
Buck [Sarah Saltonstall, wife of Daniel Buck] was 
standing at the door of her residence, built the year 
before on the corner of Wethersfield Avenue and 
Jordan Lane, when an old and earth-soiled Indian 

[40] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

came along with a little sprig of an elm tree under his 
arm. He pleaded with her to exchange the sprig for 
a quart of rum, which was, at that time, kept in every 
house in New England, and he was so weary and 
pleaded so hard that her kind heart was touched and 
the exchange was made. He went off down the road 
happy with his rum; and she, stooping down near 
the house, planted the sprig. She has long since gone 
to her heavenly home; and the magnificent elm on 
the south side of Mr. Buck's residence, eighteen feet 
in circumference and its grand old branches spread- 
ing eighty feet above, is the outcome of the little sprig 
that was planted over one hundred years ago. It is 
one of the grandest old trees in this town, which is 
remarkable for its many heaven-towering elms, and 
many a time has the writer stood beneath its protect- 
ing branches, on a hot summer's day, and recalled, in 
fancy's sweet imagination, the history of its planting 
so many years ago. About fifty rods east of Wethers- 
field Avenue, where the Valley Railroad now crosses, 
is a little hill — at that time it was the bank of the 
Connecticut River — and when the ground was broken 
for the railroad, numerous skulls and arrowheads were 
found, indicating that at some time a band of Indians 
had encamped there. Perhaps the old Indian who 
gave the people of Wethersfield such ;i. beautiful land- 
mark belonged to that tribe and perhaps he was one 
of the famed band of Sonquassen, that at one time held 

[41] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

undisputed claim to what is now known as Dutch 
Point." 

[A photograph of this elm tree and of Henry 
Buck's house may be seen opposite page 662 of Vol. I 
of "Ancient Wethersfield." That which accompanies 
the present sketch is a reduced copy of a photograph 
which I commissioned a Hartford photographer to 
take in 1897. Except for the modern piazza and the 
small extension at the east end of the dwelling, the 
building is the same as it was in 1775. — A. H. B.] 



NET FISHING IN THE CONNECTICUT 

RIVER. 

[From Memoranda Furnished by Henry Buck, of Wethersfield] 



The present Buck homestead property was pur- 
chased by Daniel Buck in 1761, and it is probable that 
the family became interested in the fishing business 
soon afterward. The land abuts on an expansion of 
the Connecticut River, which is known as "The Cove." 
This sheet of water, the southerly end of which lies 
over what is evidently the former bed of the river, is 
now connected with the main stream by a narrow 
passage, about fifty rods in length, through which the 
tide flows in and out twice a day. Those who have 
been familiar with the configuration of the shores of 
the cove and adjacent river during the past fifty or 

[42] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, COxNN. 

sixty years are satisfied that changes in the course of 
the latter are still going on, and doubtless have been 
going on for hundreds of years; the long axis of the 
stream is steadily being shifted toward the east. At 
the north end of the cove there is less depth of water 
and the shores are here composed of broad meadows 
through which flow narrow creeks — excellent spawn- 
ing places for the fish during the spring freshets. 

In the time of Daniel Buck and his immediate 
successors, shad and salmon, as well as alewives,' were 
plentiful. Indeed, the salmon were so numerous that 
the fishermen were not willing to sell any large number 
of shad unless the buyer would take some salmon at 
the same time. The latter fish have long since disap- 
peared entirely, and the shad have become very scarce; 
only five or six were caught by the Bucks in their nets 
during the early season of 1908. The catching of ale- 
wives, however, has always been the principal fishing 
of Wethersfield, and in some seasons it has been very 
profitable. Thus, for example, the Bucks alone have 
caught in their nets in a single season such large quan- 
tities that they were able to export one thousand barrels 
of these fish in a salted condition and to sell many 
fresh ones besides. But at the present time the fishing 
has dwindled to comparatively small proportions, 
three hundred barrels being considered a good average 
catch. 



*A species of herring. 

[43] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Salted alewives are shipped from Wethersfield 
first to New York and then to various parts of the 
West Indies, there to be used as food by the negroes on 
the plantations. It is quite safe, I believe, to assume 
that it was the fishing business carried on by his father 
and brothers that suggested to grandfather (Gurdon 
Buck) the wisdom of settling in New York and en- 
gaging in the shipping business. 



CURIOUS HISTORY OF THE OLD LANE IN 
i8ist STREET, NEW YORK. 

[By Gurdon S. Buck, of New York.] 



In 1834 and 1835 John Appleton Haven and 
Gurdon Buck bought various tracts of land at Fort 
Washington in the upper part of Manhattan Island, 
which were conveyed to them as tenants in common, 
and they afterward made a voluntary partition by 
exchanging deeds releasing and conveying their respect- 
ive undivided half interests in pursuance of the allot- 
ment agreed upon between them and shown on certain 
maps placed on file by them in the Register's Office 
of the County of New York. As the result of the par- 
tition each of them became the sole owner of more 
than twenty acres of land at Fort Washington, and 
each built for himself a country seat on his land. 

[44] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

These lands bought in common included the sum- 
mit of a high ridge overlooking the Hudson River 
and extended from the Kingsbridge Road, now known 
as Broadway, on the east, to the Hudson River on the 
west, and, in order to make the interior of the tract 
accessible, the two owners in common laid out various 
so-called lanes, which have remained in use until 
recent times. 

Among the parcels of land purchased, as above 
mentioned, by John A. Haven and Gurdon Buck was 
one conveyed to them by Caspar Bowers and others by 
deed dated July 2, 1835. This plot contained a little 
more than four acres, but the deed reserves a right of 
way through a lane to be laid out fifty feet wide across 
the easterly end of the parcel conveyed, which lane 
may be described as extending from the center line of 
the intended iSad Street to the center line of i8ist 
Street, as shown on a certain map referred to by the 
deed, the use of the lane being reserved for certain 
adjoining farms until convenient access could be had 
through some public avenue or street. 

The parcel of land adjoining the lane was among 
those allotted to Mr. Haven in the partition, and by a 
partition deed dated October 15, 1835, Gurdon Buck 
conveyed to Mr. Haven his undivided half interest in 
this and another parcel, but the description contained 
in this deed did not include the lane itself on the east- 
erly side of the premises conveyed by the previous 

[45] 



BUCKS OF WETHERS FIELD, CONN. 

deed of Caspar Bowers and others. The effect of this 
omission was to leave the title to the land included in 
the lane in John A. Haven and Gurdon Buck as ten- 
ants in common in equal shares. 

Gurdon Buck was a large owner of real estate in 
New York City, principally along the East River, but 
after his retirement from business he incurred obliga- 
tions for the benefit of two of his sons, who were en- 
gaged in business as cotton merchants. They were 
involved in one of the historical panics, and their 
father, in order to meet these obligations, sold all his 
land at a sacrifice in the year 1840, during a period 
when the market value was greatly depressed. 

The interest in the lane was apparently forgotten, 
and, for fifty years and more, Mr. John A. Haven and 
his son, Mr. John Haven, continued regularly to pay 
the taxes and assessments on this strip of land. 

Some time in 1895, Mr. John Haven called upon 
Mr. Henry B. Auchincloss, the oldest living grandson 
of Gurdon Buck, and said he was satisfied that the 
estate of Gurdon Buck owned an undivided half inter- 
est in the old land described in the Bowers deed and 
comprising about four city lots in area, and that this 
half interest was not affected by any of the conveyances 
made by Gurdon Buck of his property at Fort Wash- 
ington. The records have been examined and it has 
been ascertained that Mr. Haven's belief was correct. 

The heirs and representatives of the estate of Gur- 

[46] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

don Buck at this late date were numerous and dis- 
persed from one end of the country to the other. In 
order to concentrate the ownership and thus make it 
possible to clear the title and make the undivided half 
interest in these lots marketable, conveyances were 
procured from all the parties in interest to Henry B. 
Auchincloss and Gurdon S. Buck, both residing in the 
City of New York, as joint tenants, and an application 
to insure the title is now pending with the Lawyers' 
Title Insurance and Trust Company. 

The other undivided half interest, formerly vested 
in John A. Haven, passed to John Haven and James C. 
Carter, the distinguished lawyer, and by them it was 
conveyed to Charles T. Barney, since deceased. It 
now belongs to the estate of Mr. Barney. 

The sum due to Mr. John Haven on account of 
taxes and assessments paid and interest accrued was 
adjusted by negotiation with him and paid in full 
shortly before his death, in June, 1908, at a great old 
age. He was feeble physically, but his mind was clear 
to the last. 

Mr. Haven's conduct throughout these trans- 
actions was kindly and generous and showed a high 
sense of honor. His acknowledgment of the rights of 
the estate of Gurdon Buck was made without grudging 
or hesitation, notwithstanding that he, and his father 
before him, had believed themselves for so many years 
to be the sole owners of the property in question. 

[47] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

ADDITIONAL MEMORANDA RELATING 
TO DR. GURDON BUCK. 



[From the Resolutions passed by the Board of 
Trustees of the New York Dispensary.] 

"Whereas, it has pleased an all-wise Providence to 
remove by death Dr. Gurdon Buck, for twenty-eight 
years a faithful and devoted member of this Board, 
therefore 

"Resolved, That we, his associates, desire to place 
on record a recognition and acknowledgment of his 
long and valuable services in the interests of this Insti- 
tution, first as Assistant Physician in 183 1, as Attend- 
ing Physician in 1836, and, since 1849, as a self- 
sacrificing member of this Board. 

"Resolved, That we deeply deplore the loss, in him, 
of a fellow member whose sound judgment and ripe 
experience have greatly added to the success and in- 
fluence of this Institution." 

[From the Resolutions passed by the Board of 
Trustees of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.] 

"Resolved, That in view of the recent death of Dr. 
Gurdon Buck, the Board of Directors hereby express 
their feeling of respect for a surgeon who gave several 
years of service to this Institution, and who was an 
honor to its medical stafif, as much for his skill as for 
his faithful attention to its work." 

[4S] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

[Copy of the Resolutions unanimously adopted by 
the Board of Governors of the New York Hospital, 
April 3, 1877, in relation to the death of Dr. Gurdon 
Buck.] 

"Dr. Gurdon Buck was elected an Attending Sur- 
geon to the Hospital in the year 1837, having some time 
previously served as Resident for the usual period, and 
was, at the time of his decease, the senior member of 
the Medical Board. 

"During the whole forty years of his continuous 
service, Dr. Buck was distinguished by his zeal and 
devotion to the duties of his position, giving thereto 
many of the best hours of his life, often to the detri- 
ment of his private interests. The records of the hos- 
pital are rich in instances of his ingenuity and surgi- 
cal skill, and the Pathological Cabinet contains many 
visible memorials of his eminent ability. 

"His active benevolence was illustrated by his un- 
remitting attention to the comfort of patients and the 
wants of the Hospital; and many improvements in 
hospital administration and construction are largely 
due to the fertility of his suggestion. 

"The high attainments of Dr. Buck, acknowledged 
as they were both here and abroad, while they shed a 
luster upon the profession, have contributed in no 
small measure to the reputation now enjoyed by the 
New York Hospital. 

[49] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

^^Resolved, That the Board of Governors in record- 
ing their sense of the great loss they have sustained, in 
the severance of the ties which have existed for so 
long a period between Dr. Buck and themselves, de- 
sire to convey to the family of their deceased friend 
and associate the assurance of the sincere condolence 
of the Governors in their bereavement. 

"Resolved, That a copy of the above minute and 
resolution, duly authenticated, be forwarded to the 
family of the deceased." 

[E.xtract from the Thirty-Fifth Anniversary Ser- 
mon preached Sunday morning, January 27, 1901, by 
the Rev. Marvin R. Vincent, D. D., in the Church of 
the Covenant, New York.] 

"And this leads me to turn aside for a moment in 
order to say a few words about the Session of the 
Church of the Covenant. What a noble body of men 
it was. I have not time to speak of all its members, 
and some are still living, of whom it would not be 
proper for me to speak on such an occasion as this. 
There were the two eminent surgeons. Dr. Gurdon 
Buck and Dr. Alfred C. Post. Dr. Buck was a mem- 
ber of the committee appointed to procure plans and 
specifications for this building.' There are some here 
who remember his superb head, and his large and 
somewhat clumsy frame. He was simple, direct, often 

"The chapel at No. 306-310 East 42J Street. The church itself (corner of 35th 
St. and Park Avenue) had already been torn down a few year previously. 

[.50] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 



blunt in speech, yet genial, humorous, full of anecdote, 
and the very soul of honor as a man and as a physician. 
He loved his profession for its opportunities of reliev- 
ing human suffering no less than for its own sake. Be- 
hind the hand that guided the terrible knife, beat a 
large and tender heart. He was one of the three 
chosen as the first ruling elders of the Church. He 
was a good and valuable church officer, carrying 
weight by his sturdy common sense and ripe experi- 
ence, no less than by his knowledge of the Scriptures 
and of the doctrines and polity of the Presbyterian 
Church." 

[Extract from remarks made by Rev. George C. 
Prentiss, D. D., at the funeral of Dr. Alfred C. Post, 
of New York City. — New York Evangelist.'] 

"Some years ago — if I may be pardoned for a per- 
sonal allusion — 1 owed my life, by the favor of Provi- 
dence, to the masterly skill of the late Dr. Gurdon 
Buck and the friend who has just left us. I recall the 
scene as though it occurred yesterday, and remember 
well how, notwithstanding the extreme gravity of the 
situation, my admiration was excited by the evident 
zest, as well as the cheery tone and assurance with 
which these two eminent surgeons addressed themselves 
to the perilous task before them. I could see plainly 
that over and above their tender solicitude for me, 
their old pastor and friend, they were deeply interested 

[51] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

in the case itself, as one fitted to test anew the saving 
power of their stern yet benignant art." 

[Extract from remarks made by Professor T. Gail- 
lard Thomas, at the annual dinner of the Alumni 
Association of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
New York, in 1878.] 

"The oldest medical school in this country, with a 
single exception, their Alma Mater could look down a 
vista of more than threescore years and recall the 
names of graduates whose medical careers reflected 
glory upon the school that sent them forth. There 
were Post and Watson, Buck and Francis, Delafield 
and Smith — names that need not be mentioned with 
their initials to tell the world who they were." 

[Extract from an article on Thyrotomy by Dr. 
Clinton Wagner, of New York. — Medical Record, 
January 4, 1896.] 

"Thyrotomy, or laryngotomy, as it was formerly 
termed, was first proposed by Desault about a century 
ago, although he never had occasion to perform it. To 
Bauers, of Louvain, is due the honor of having been 
the first to perform it. Gurdon Buck, of this city, 
did it in 185 1, his being the third case on record." 

[Extract from an article published by Dr. Stephen 
Smith in the Medical Record, December 22, 1900.] 

"A consultation was held, and the unanimous opin- 
ion was that amputation must be immediately per- 

[52] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

formed to save his life. Looking backward to the per- 
sonnel of the stafif of visiting surgeons of that hospital 
(the New York Hospital) forty years ago, we recog- 
nize that the consultation was notable for the character 
of the surgeons composing it. Dr. Valentine Mott 
ranked among the most eminent of living surgeons; 
Dr. Alfred C. Post was noted for his precision, Dr. 
Gurdon Buck for his conservatism, Dr. John Watson 
for his learning. It is quite certain that Ryan's case 
was thoroughly examined in all its aspects, for a con- 
sultation in those days was no mere formal afifair, but 
an occasion for the most critical comparison of the 
learning, skill, and experience of the consultants." 

[Extract from reminiscences of Dr. Lewis A. 
Sayre, published in the New York Times of October 
lOth, 1897.] 

"When I was a student under Dr. Green, in 1839, 
a hurry call came for him. I went down to the docks 
and found the cabin boy lying senseless on the deck 
of a vessel then just on the point of sailing. The lad 
had fallen from the masthead, breaking his thigh on 
the yard-arm, and striking his head against the edge of 
the poop. The boy's left frontal bone was stove in 
and his face covered with blood. Novice though I 
was, I saw that instant action was necessary. Seizing 
an oyster knife, I pried up, as best I could, the broken 
and depressed edges of the fracture, and had the boy 
taken to the old New York Hospital in Broadway, 

[53] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Opposite Pearl Street. Dr. Gurdon Buck speedily 
trephined the boy's skull. No sooner had he picked 
up the broken bone and relieved the pressure on the 
brain than the cabin boy began to speak in English, 
asking: 'What are you doing there?' 

"We all know, now, that the third convolution of 
the left side of the brain is the seat of the faculty of 
speech, but in 1839 the functions of the brain were not 
localized. So I marveled at this strange result. Pres- 
ently hernia cerebri, a swelling out of the brain through 
the wound, set in, and this caused the skilful surgeon 
more trouble, to overcome which Dr. Buck cut from a 
sheet of thin lead a circular piece large enough to cover 
the wound, and, gently forcing the protruding brain 
back into its place, bandaged the lead over the gaping 
aperture in the skull. 

"Another complication set in. Pus formed; for 
pus always formed in wounds in those days long ante- 
dating antisepsis, and Dr. Buck, to release the pus 
without removing the lead, cut in the center of the 
latter a slit, into which a sixpence might have been 
inserted edgewise, and this drained the pus. Nature 
helped, too, and the boy made a fine recovery, and was 
kept in the hospital for some time thereafter as an illus- 
tration of what skilful surgery could do in those days." 

[Extracts from Dr. Frederic S. Dennis's address 
before the New York State Medical Association. — 
New York Medical Record, December 3, 1892.] 

[.54] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

"In 1819, Daniell, of Georgia, introduced the 
weight and pulley. In 1851, Buck still further mod- 
ified Physick's splint so as to do away with the perineal 
band, and accomplished extension of the limb by the 
weight and pulley, after the manner of its present use. 
This was a great improvement in order to overcome 
shortening. Van Ingen, in 1857, suggested the eleva- 
tion of the foot of the bed to permit the body to act as 
a counter-extending force. The coaptation splints were 
now used by Buck, in 1861, so that the present com- 
plete and perfect method is one that is the result of 
evolution, the consummation of which has been accom- 
plished by the work of American surgeons." 
******* 

"In 1823 Davidge first tied the carotid artery for 
fungous tumor of the antrum. The primitive and 
internal carotids were first tied simultaneously by 
Gurdon Buck, of New York City, in 1857, and again 
by Briggs, of Nashville, in 1871." 

******* 

"The operation for the relief of acute appendicitis 
is clearly traced to the work of American surgeons. 
In 1843 Willard Parker, and later Gurdon Buck, did 
much to explain the nature of these iliac inflamma- 
tions," etc. 

******* 

"There are many miscellaneous operations in sur- 
gery which are purely of American origin, or they 

[55] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

have been so improved in technique as to be properly 
claimed as American. The scarification of the infil- 
trated mucous membrane in cedema glottidis, as sug- 
gested by Buck, and the removal of polypi from the 
larynx by the same surgeon, who was the first to do 
this in America and second in the world, is worthy 
of record.'" 

[Extract from a letter written to me in 1899, by 
Dr. Moreau Morris, of New York, one of father's 
earliest private students. — A. H. B.] 

"Permit me to describe to you an act of heroism 
performed by your respected father. Dr. Gurdon Buck, 
of which I was an eye-witness. ***** 

"While a student of his, and attending, during his 
daily visits to the New York Hospital, as his amanu- 
ensis, I was fortunate in seeing and assisting him in 
practicing the operation of scarification of oedema 
glottidis, which he had originated and successfully 
practiced during his hospital service. This disease 
being rather a rare one, no opportunity had presented 
itself for performing an operation in private practice 
until the autumn of 1849, when I was called in great 

*Dr. F. E. Hopkins, of New York, in an article on "Acute Oedema of the Lar- 
ynx," puhlislud in the McJual Knord. t)ctolnr 19. I»'J5, says: "This method ot 
affording relief [scarification] was first employed by Lisfranc in 182.1, but the opera- 
tion fell into disuse. It was first done in this country f>y Buck, who reported cases 
in 1848 He was led to the adoption of the method liy his own reasoning, not being 
Rware that it had previously been employed. During a period of eleven months he 
saw the surpiising number of eight cases. Five of these he scarified, and all of them 
recovered." 

[56] 



BUCKS OF VVETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

haste to a young Irish laborer in his boarding-house on 
Fifth Avenue, between 57th and 58th Streets. I found 
him with impending suffocation from greatly swollen 
glottis and epiglottis. Recognizing the immediate 
danger and recollecting the admirable instruction for 
the relief of this condition which my dear old precep- 
tor had inculcated, although I was without the proper 
instruments, I immediatclv scarified with curved, 
blunt-pointed bistouri the cedematous swellings. This 
aflforded temporary relief from the suffocation by per- 
mitting the escape of the serous exudation; but, as 
the relief was only partial, on account of the extension 
of the (xdema beyond my reach, I sent a hasty messen- 
ger for Dr. Buck to come to my assistance armed with 
the proper instruments both for scarification and for 
tracheotomy. He came promptly, but in the interim 
my patient had been rapidly succumbing to his increas- 
ing impeded respiration. Just as the doctor entered 
the room the patient fell from his chair to the floor, 
respiration ceasing. Without a moment's hesitation, 
Dr. Buck grasped the situation, dropped to his knee 
beside the prostrate form, and made the opening into 
the windpipe. No air entering, but bloody serum ex- 
uding and completely obstructing the entrance of air, 
the Doctor put his mouth to the opening and sucked 
out the obstructing bloody serum. Air immediately 
entered, a gasp followed, then soon another, and 
breathing was resumed — a life had been saved. 

[57] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

"If this was not true heroism, then there is no suit- 
able term with which to describe such an act at such 
such imminent peril — not only from possible poison- 
ing, but also from the threatening attitude of several 
ignorant companions who were declaring that we had 
killed their friend. The man having been raised to a 
sitting posture, tracheal tubes were inserted and se- 
cured, and respiration was fully established. Under 
subsequent treatment and care the patient, at the end 
of about six weeks, had fully recovered and the tra- 
cheal wound had entirely healed." 

[Memorandum found among mother's papers after 
her death.] 

"The lines transcribed below were taken from a 
very humorous address prepared by Dr. Pliny Earle, 
of Northampton, Massachusetts, for the first annual 
meeting (and dinner) of the newly formed 'Society in 
Behalf of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men,' 
which took place — so far as I can remember — in No- 
vember, 1837. On reaching New York City, Dr. 
Earle went at once to the Astor House, where the 
Committee of Arrangements had given rendez-vous to 
their guests from out of the city. Dr. Earle, on show- 
ing the paper which he had prepared for the occasion, 
— an address to the unmarried medical men of the 
Association — to have it approved or criticized, was 
soon informed of his mistake in regard to Dr. Gurdon 

[58] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Buck, who had been married for some time. He then 
retired for a short time in an adjoining room, and very 
successfully repaired his mistake, as may be seen by 
the accompanying extract. — (Monsieur Louis Agassiz, 
who had just landed on our shores, coming to settle in 
Harvard, as Professor of Natural History, etc., was 
an unexpected but most welcome guest at this medical 
gathering.)" 

"Let sage Agassiz, with his wondrous store 
Of treasured truths in zoologic lore. 
Inform us, as all eloquent he can, 
If it conforms to Nature's general plan 
That, roaming lonely through the world should go 
One solitary Buck without its doe. 



"The game has dodged my shot: mistaken elf, 
I thought my friend was lonely as myself; 
But, since those lines were penned, I have heard it said 
That for this Buck the doe was long since bred. 
Beyond the vineyards and the plains of France, 
Where Switzer paysannes o'er the vintage dance. 
Where lakes and ladies' eyes are bright and clear. 
There this good trapper, in his love's career. 
Caught for his doe a Wolff, which now he calls a dear. 
Would that all Buck-tales came to such an end! 
Would that all single bucks would hence attend! 
Follow his path, e'en to its glorious close. 
Keep wide awake a while; then take their does. 
But let us pass, friend Buck no longer heeded, 
Since we have learned, for him no doe is needed." 



[59] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F 1 E L D, CONN 



[Editorial notice in the Medical Gazette, of New 
York, February, 1858.] 

"Newspapers having announced and commented 
upon an operation lately performed by Dr. Gurdon 
Buck upon a young lady of this city, it would seem 
proper that we should put our readers in possession of 
the facts, in anticipation of the detailed report, which 
will doubtless be forthcoming in the medical journals 
in due time, by authority. The case is one of very great 
professional interest on several accounts, and its suc- 
cessful result will add another laurel to the wreath 
which Dr. Buck has won for New York surgery. 

"The lady, some two years since, had a small fish 
bone lodged in her throat, in the act of swallowing, 
which she could feel with her finger, though, not being 
visible, it could not be extracted at the time. At first 
it occasioned but little inconvenience, but, later, either 
its presence or the wound which if had inflicted pro- 
duced so much irritation at times, extending to the 
larynx and trachea, as to become afflictive and even haz- 
ardous, by reason of the paroxysmal recurrence of in- 
tense laryngismus, sometimes endangering life. The 
patient being nearly connected with the families of 
several of our most eminent physicians, her case en- 
listed the counsel of several of our distinguished sur- 
geons, and of other medical men, by whom the expe- 
dient of tracheotomy was several times proposed, but 
as often delayed, a mitigation of symptoms having been 

[60] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

obtained by antispasmodics and other medication. Of 
late, however, the dangerous symptoms having recurred 
more frequently and suflfocation threatening, the neces- 
sity of some operation became imperative; and, after 
full consultation and the heroic consent of the patient, 
Dr. Gurdon Buck, on the loth of January, performed 
it as the dernier ressort, to avert the fatal result which 
was impending. Among the surgeons present were 
Dr. Alexander Stevens, Dr. Willard Parker, and Dr. 
John Watson, and with them were the physicians in 
attendance — Dr. Alonzo Clark, Dr. Cammann, and 
Dr. Joseph Mather Smith. 

"The operation was undertaken, first, for the re- 
moval of the foreign body, but also because it was neces- 
sary to relieve the patient's suffering. The larynx was 
laid open, the patient being etherized, and a protracted 
and diligent search was made in vain, no trace of the 
fish bone being discovered; but the area of inflamed and 
ulcerated mucous membrane in the larynx and trachea 
was exposed to view and cauterized. Then, finally, the 
artificial tube was introduced, to the manifest relief of 
the sufferer, whose powers of endurance— for it had 
been found necessary to suspend the ether — were mar- 
velous. On the following day the wound was opened, 
and, for the second time, a most careful search for the 
foreign body was made, but in vain. The parts were 
then coapted, the tube replaced, and the wound fully 
dressed. 

[61] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 



"From that time to the present all has gone well; 
the wound healed by first intention, there has been no 
recurrence of the laryngismus, and all the sufi'erings 
of the patient have been relieved. The perforated 
tube, however, is still worn, and the patient has recov- 
ered her voice and speech. Her health also, which had 
been greatly shattered, is rapidly being restored. 
Whether the fish bone remains imbedded in any of 
the tissues, which is possible, or whether it has escaped 
after inflicting so great an amount of misery, are ques- 
tions which it is now impossible to answer with pos- 
itiveness. But the operation has succeeded in rescuing 
from sufYering and death a young wife and mother, 
and in restoring her to her husband, children, and an 
endeared family circle, at the head of which stands 
one of our most esteemed physicians. She will be a 
living trophy of the science and skill of Dr. Buck, of 
the New York Hospital, who has already distinguished 
himself, in this department of surgery, beyond any 
living man at home or abroad." 

[E.xtract from the obituary notice of Dr. Gurdon 
Buck, published in the Medical Record, of New York, 
on March loth, 1877.] 

"As a surgeon, Dr. Buck was remarkable for bold- 
ness in operating and for thoroughness of detail in 
after-treatment. His patient study of his cases was 
one of his peculiar traits. To cases of fractures he was 

[62] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

particularly attentive, spending not infrequently the 
greater part of the day in the wards of the New York 
Hospital in dressing them. As a result of such pains- 
taking effort he was enabled to revolutionize the pre- 
vailing system of treatment. ****** 
Dr. Buck was not only a bold, but an original operator. 
The various capital operations which are described in 
the periodical medical literature of the past thirty-five 
years abundantly prove the latter statement. Among 
these, what is now known as Buck's operation for oede- 
ma of the glottis holds a deservedly high rank. But in 
no department did he gain more laurels than in auto- 
plastic surgery. His devotion to this branch, during 
the latter part of his life, amounted to a passion, and 
his marvelous successes roused in him an enthusiasm 
which mocked the increasing infirmities of his age and 
his rapidly declining health. His work on 'Contri- 
butions to Reparative Surgery,' issued only within the 
last year, fully embodies his remarkable experience, 
and may be looked upon as the crowning effort of a 
most notable and distinguished career." 

List of Articles and Monographs Published by 
Dr. Gurdon Buck. 

I. Researches on Hernia Cerebri, following injuries 
of the head. — New York Journal of Medicine 
and Surgery, Vol. H, 1840. 

[63] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D , CONN. 

2. Excision of the Elbow Joint, in a case of Suppur- 

ation and Caries of the Bones; A case of Anchy- 
losis of the Knee Joint, etc. — New York Journal 
of Medicine and Surgery, Vol. IV, 1841. 

3. The Knee Joint Anchylosed at a Right Angle; 

Restored nearly to a straight position, after the 
excision of a wedge-shaped portion of bone con- 
sisting of the patella, condyles, and articular 
surface of the tibia. — American Journal of the 
Medical Sciences, 1845. 

4. Oedematous Laryngitis (with plates showing 

instruments and operation). — On the Anatom- 
ical Structure of the Genito-Urinary Organs. — 
Transactions of .American Medical Association, 
Vol. I, 1848. 

5. Six Additional Cases of Oedematous Laryngitis, 

Successfully Treated by Scarification of the Epi- 
glottis. — Transactions of American Medical 
Association, Vo]. IV, 1851. 

6. A Case of Croup; Tracheotomy Successfully 

Performed. — Transactions of Academy of Med- 
icine of New York, Vol. I, 1851. 

7. Surgical Treatment of Morbid Growths within 

the Larynx. — Transactions of American Medi- 
cal Association, Vol. VI, 1853. 

8. Badly-United Fractures of the Thigh; Cases Il- 

lustrating Treatment [Refracture]. — Trans- 
actions of Academy of Medicine of New York, 

1855- 

9. A Case of Deep Wound of the Parotid Region, 

in which Ligatures were Simultaneously Ap- 
plied to the Common and Internal Carotid 

[64] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Arteries. — New York Medical Times, Novem- 
ber, 1855. 

10. Post-Fascial Abscess, Originating in the Iliac 

Fossa, with a New Method of Treatment. — New 
York Journal of Medicine, 1857. 

11. Case of Aneurism of the Femoral Artery, for 

which Ligatures were Successfully Applied to 
the Femoral, Profunda, External and Common 
Iliacs^a case that occurred in the New York. 
Hospital. — New York Journal of Medicine, 
1858. 

12. Tracheotomy Performed for Oedema of the 

Larynx. — New York Journal of Medicine, 1859. 

13. Improved Method of Treating Fractures of the 

Thigh. [Illustrated; also table of statistics.] 
Transactions of Academy of Medicine of New 
York, 1 86 1. 

14. The Operation for Strangulated Hernia, with- 

out Opening the Sac. — Bulletin of the Academy 
of Medicine of New York, February, 1863. 

15. Strangulated Inguinal Interstitial Hernia; Tes- 

ticle retained in Inguinal Canal. Operation; 
death. — New York Medical Record, July, 
1869. 

16. Lithotomy and Lithotrity. — Transactions of State 

Medical Society of New York, 1869. 

17. A Contribution to the Surgical Therapeutics of 

the Air Passages. — Transactions of the Academy 
of Medicine of New York, 1870. 

18. Femoral Aneurism in the Groin, Successfully 

Treated by Flexion of the Limb, After a Relapse 
Following a Previous Apparent Cure by Com- 

[65] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

pression. — American Journal of the Medical 
Sciences, ]zn\xd.Ty, 1870. 

19. A Case of Oedema Glottidis in which a Patient 

was Resuscitated by the Operation of Trache- 
otomy After Respiration had Ceased. — New 
York Medical Record, October, 1870. 

20. A Case of Strangulated Hernia of the Tunica 

Vaginalis of Rare Variety. Operation; gan- 
grene; death. — American Journal of the Medi- 
cal Sciences, 187 1. 

21. A Biographical Sketch of the Late Dr. Thomas 

Cock. — Transactions of the State Medical So- 
ciety of New York, 1 87 1. 

22. On Abscesses originating in the Right Iliac Fossa; 

with table of statistics. — Transactions of the 
Academy of Medicine of New York, 1876. 

23. Perityphlitic Abscess in the Ileo-caecal Region. — 

New York Medical Record, 1876. 

24. Migration of Pus. — Richmond and Louisville 

Medical Journal, March, 1876. 

25. Contributions to Reparative Surgery. — D. Apple- 

ton & Co., 1876. (Pp. 237.) 



[66] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 



PART III. 



REMINISCENCES OF REV. PHILIPPE 
WOLFF. 

(Mother's only Brother.) 



In 1892, Uncle Philippe, at my request, wrote down 
as many of the incidents of his father's military life as 
he could recall. I have arranged the more important 
of these incidents in their chronological order, and 
have transcribed them in very nearly the same lan- 
guage as that in which they were written. The few 
alterations which I have permitted myself to make 
in the text affect the form but not the sense of his 
statements. 

Causes which led to My Father's Entrance into 
THE Army at a very Early Age. 

My grandfather, the Kapellmeister, was a citizen 
of Landau (a walled fortress town then in the posses- 
sion of France). At the revolution (1792) he became 
a staunch partisan of the Republic, but was opposed 
to excess and terrorism. He was denounced as an 
aristocrat. A friendly Jacobin warned him that the 
Club in secret session had decided to send him forth- 

[67] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

with to the guillotine, and that in the night his house 
would be surrounded.' Early in the evening he made 
his escape, passing through a gate of the fortress in 
the disguise of a peasant returning from market. He 
made straight for the army on the frontier — the only 
safe resort for a patriot who would not become an 
emigre. (His age was then forty-nine.) Once in safety 
he ordered his three sons, all minors, to join him and 
enlist as volunteers. Hence their early military career. 
Only the two younger sons, however, joined their 
father. The older son, Louis, took a more independent 
course, entered the naval service and trained at Saint- 
Malo, in France. He was a fine athlete and an unri- 
valled swimmer. From the proceeds of the prizes 
which he captured while serving in the navy he pur- 
chased a plantation in the Island of Mauritius, and 
eventually amassed a large fortune. In 1810, however, 
the English sent a powerful expedition to Mauritius 
and put an end to the French rule in the island. Louis 
Wolff passed in the night in a small boat through the 
British fleet and landed at Mozambique, but he soon 
afterward died there of a fever. The English confis- 
cated his real estate in Mauritius; his movable property 
went to a Miss Pajol (of Port Louis, Mauritius), to 
whom he was engaged to be married. 



'The infamous Sohneidcr, who traveled over the e.istern part of France with a com- 
pletely outfitted guillotine and executed in this manner scores, if not hundreds, of the 
country's hest citizens, is known to have heen in the neighborhood of Landau at this 
very period. — A. H, IJ. 

[68] 



bucks of wethersfield, conn. 

Incident Illustrative of General Pichegru's 

Character. 

In 1794 and 1795 my father was with General 
Pichegru when he conquered both Belgium and Hol- 
land. Pichegru made him his confidential secretary/ 
He usually slept in the tent of the General and had 
charge of all his correspondence/ 

During this campaign, there occurred a very strik- 
ing incident, which I will relate. Pichegru was driv- 
ing before him the British army, under the command 
of the Duke of York. One morning there was a very 
thick fog, and some of the retreating British lost their 
way. The French were following in their track at 
the time, but — as they thought— at some distance 
behind them. A company of infantry was in advance 

*At iirst, he must have been simply one of Pichcgni's assistant stxrirlaries, for 
in 1793 grandfather was only sixteen years old. And yet one of his immediate 
predecessors in this position— Charles Nodier, who later in life became famous as a 
writer — was, at the time of his appointment, only fifteen years old. Alexandre Dumas, 
in one of his historical novels, gives quite a detailed account of Nodier*s experiences 
while serving as one of Pichegru's assistant secretaries. — A. H. B. 

'It does not appear, in any part of these detached reminiscences, at what dale 
the two Wolff brothers became leaders of military bands. I*resumably, when they 
first entered the army, they were simple privates in the musical corps; and yet, after 
the lapse of so short a period as two years, the younger brother — my grandfather, 
Albert Henri Wolff — appears to have been assigned to duties entirely distinct from 
those of a musician. I called my mother's attention to this matter, and she replied 
that her father possessed certain traits of character and certain little accomplish- 
ments (his handwriting was in bold characters and easily legible, and he was a fairly 
good draughtsman) which led to his being fre<iuently employed on what might be 
called staff work. Ft was in this way, she said, that he came to be so well acquainted 
with General Berthicr, Napoleon's chief of slalT. I can readily understand that the 
leader of a band of music, especially during such active campaigning as fell to the 
lot of the French army during the years 1792-1807, would have a great deal of time 
at his disposal for wotk that had no connection whatever with music. The rank of 
the leader of a band of music was that of captain. — A. H. B. 

[69] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D , CONN. 

and stumbled upon a party of the British halted in a 
field which was surrounded by hedges. The captain, 
thanks to the fog, hit upon an expedient to capture 
them. He had three drums. He placed one in the 
center and the other two a long way in advance — one 
on the right and the other on the left — and ordered 
the drummers to make all the noise they could. Then 
he sent a parley to the British, to request an immediate 
surrender, as they were surrounded on all sides. Dis- 
pirited, the British laid down their arms, which were 
immediately removed. Then a message was sent to 
Pichegru to hurry up with the army. When the fog 
lifted, it was found that they had taken over eight 
hundred prisoners, nearly all grenadier guards. Shortly 
before, Pichegru had received from the Convention 
an order in which it was stated that, the English hav- 
ing been decreed "les ennemis du genre humain," no 
prisoners should be taken from them; all captives were 
to be summarily put to death.' The British, who had 

'On page 55 of "Lcs Campagiics il'un Musicien d'Etat-Major pendant la Republii|ue 
et 'Empire. 1791-1810," by Pliilippe-Rene Girault. 2d edition. Paris, I9U1, I find tlie 
following statement, which shows that there were other occasions, during the wars of the 
French Republic, when the troops were instructed to give no quarter: — "Nous autres 
musiciens. on nous avait laisses al'ecart av^cles equipages. Comme le canon avait cess^. 
I'envie nous prit h trois d'aller voir ce qui se 'passait de I'autre c6te du Rhin. Nous par- , 

vJnmes \ nous placer dans une barque, quoiqu'il ne fut permis qu'aux combattants d'y 
entrer. et nous voil^ sur I'autre rivage. A peine avions-nous mis pied i terre que nous 
entendons un feu de tons les diables. C'etaient nos grenailiers qui attaquaient le camp 
ennemi. Que faire ? Retourner aux barques? Nousavions eu trop de peine pour nous 
y placer. Nous joindre aux combattants' mais nous n'avions pour toute arme que 
nos ep^es. II ne manquait pas de fusils et de munitions per terre dans la redoute. Nous 
fumes bientot armes et nous voil^ partis en avant faisant le coup de fusil avec les troupiers. 
Un Autrichien qui fuyait devant moi mit bas les armes et voulut se rendre; mais il 6tait 
d^fendu de faire des prisonniers, et il me fallut. i mon grand regret, lui passer ma baionnette 

[70] 



^ 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

not known anything of this before, were now informed 
of the decision, and they naturally supposed that their 
last hour had come. Pichegru called his officers to a 
conference and said to them: "I have accepted to be a 
General, but not to be an executioner. Happen to me 
what may, I will never carry out this order." All the 
officers approved of this decision. The British officers 
then having been summoned, Pichegru said to them: 
"You know what my orders are, but I do not intend 
to carry them out. If, however, I send you to the rear 
as prisoners of war, your lives would still be in danger. 
Pledge yourselves that you and your men will not serve 
again in the present war, and depart as fast as you can." 
When the news of this event reached Paris, the Con- 
vention ordered Pichegru to appear at its bar. His 
reply was: "I am willing to answer your summons, 
but I shall appear there at the head of my victorious 
army." They did not dare to molest him. 

At a much later period, when Napoleon had 
crushed the Republic and had usurped regal power, 
Pichegru was arrested by him as a traitor who would 
promote the return of the Bourbons. One morning he 
was found strangled by his cravat in his prison. Na- 
poleon said, "Suicide;" my father said, "Murder."' 

It travers le corps. Voila !a guerre: tuer ou etre tue. Pour moi, j'aurais aime micux 
{aire une partie de basson." — (The events narrated here occurred in 1795; the troops 
engaged belonged to the "Armde de Sambre et Meuse.") 

*For more than one hundred years each one of these verdicts has found earnest 
supporters, but the very careful investigations made by Barbey, and published only a 
few weeks since (by Perrin, Paris, 1909), fail to discover any evidence that would 
justify the theory of murder. — A. H. B. 

[71] 



BUCKS OF WET HERS FIELD, CONN. 

In his daily intercourse with Pichegru, and in the 
management of his correspondence, my father never 
saw anything that would justify the belief that he was 
not a loyal, convinced Republican, with no leaning 
whatever toward the Bourbons. 

Supposed Death of one of My Father's Friends, 
AND His Sudden and Unexpected Reappear- 
ance Three Years Later. 

In one of the campaigns on the other side of the 
Rhine, one of my father's friends, a young captain, 
was shot dead — as was then supposed — on the high 
road. Shortly afterward, my father, in passing over 
the same road, identified the body as that of his friend, 
and, fearing that it might be trampled upon by horses' 
hoofs or run over by the wheels of the gun carriages, 
he had it lifted into a dry ditch on one side of the road. 
He then continued on his way, and, at the last glance 
that he cast in the direction of his friend's body, he 
saw that a soldier was pulling off his boots to appropri- 
ate them for his own use. In due course of time this 
death was reported at headquarters, and my father 
was called upon to sign the "extrait mortuaire" as one 
of the witnesses who had seen the captain dead. The 
document was then forwarded to the captain's young 
widow in Strasbourg. One day, three or four years 
later, while my father was sitting in a cafe in Genoa, 
his regiment having in the meantime been transferred 

[72] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

to Italy, somebody touched him on the shoulder and 
said: "Why, Henri, it is you; I am so glad to see you." 
My father was overcome and seized with a sort of ter- 
ror; it was the captain whom he supposed to be dead. 
"You left me for dead," said the captain, "and soon 
afterward the enemy reached the spot. They ordered 
the peasants to bury me and several others whose bodies 
were lying near by. One of the peasants placed me 
in his wheelbarrow and transported me to the edge of 
the grave which had been dug. Just as he was about 
to cast me into the pit, he noticed that my eyes moved. 
I was simply stiff and paralyzed by the cold, and I 
soon revived after he had carried me to his dwelling. 
His family nursed me for months, and I recovered my 
health and strength; but the enemy reappeared and I 
was made a prisoner. They carried me of? to some dis- 
tant part of the country and kept me confined for a 
long period without ink and paper and out of reach 
of the post. When I was finally released, I went 
straight to my home in Strasbourg. It was midday, 
and I walked into the dining-room, where I found my 
wife seated at table with a gentleman and two young 
children. She swooned, and as soon as she revived 
she began to explain how she had received notice of 
my death. 'Enough,' I said. 'Is this gentleman your 
husband?' 'Yes.' 'Does he make you happy?' 'Yes.' 
'Are these your children?' 'Yes.' 'Then I do not blame 
you. I will not disturb your honestly earned happi- 

[73] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIEl-D, CONN 



ness. Farewell. You will never hear any more of 
me.' — Now I desire above all things real death. I am 
on my way to the front, I shall ask to be employed in 
the most dangerous expeditions, and I shall fight in 
the first rank." — He succeeded, and was soon after 
killed in an engagement. 

The Imprisonment of Pope Pius VI in the Citadel 

AT Turin. 

In 1793, the representative sent to Rome by the 
French — Basseville was his name — was assassinated at 
the instigation of the priests. But in 1797, by the treaty 
of Tolentino, Bonaparte exacted a public apology and 
a fine of several millions of francs. Then a new rep- 
resentative, General Duphot, was sent. But the Pope 
and the priests excited the fanaticism of the people, 
declaring the French to be atheists, infidels, and ac- 
cursed apostates of their holy religion; and Duphot 
was massacred by the very soldiers of the guard of the 
Pope. Then in February, 1798, General Berthier 
came with an army to avenge the crime. Rome was 
secularized, and Pius VI was sent as a prisoner to a 
convent in Florence. Later, for greater security, he 
was ordered to be transferred to the citadel of Turin. 
His reception there was a matter of great difficulty, 
for the fanaticism of the people in his behalf was dan- 
gerous, and, on the other hand, the French officers 
professed irreligion and felt for him and his priests 

[74] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

only wrath and contempt. But the Pope was on his 
way, under cavalry escort, and must be received and 
treated with decency. My father was entrusted with 
this duty, and an escort of troops was placed under 
his orders.' The Pope was handed over to him outside 
the city, and he signed a receipt to the commander of 
the last escort. Then the Pope made his entrance 
amidst an immense crowd, my father riding by the side 
of the carriage. When they reached the gate of the 
citadel, it was announced to the Pope that he had 
arrived at his destination. Upon alighting from his 
carriage, he said to my father: "My son, you have been 
very kind to me. Will you receive my blessing?" 
"With pleasure," my father replied. Then the Pope 
extended his hands over his head, mumbled something 
in Latin, and said: "Now I will follow you." My 
father showed him the apartments which he was to 
occupy and he seemed to be pleased with them. Asked 
if there was anything he wished for, he replied: "No, 
my son, you have behaved well toward me, and I 
thank you." The blessing took place on the public 
square, just in front of the gate of the citadel, in the 
presence of both the military and the crowd of 
lookers-on. 

Father's Experience at the Island of Re. 

A few months later. Napoleon having returned 
from Egypt, the eighteenth Brumaire took place. 

'Grandfather was then (1798) only twentjr-two years old. — A. H. B. 

[75] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

(This was in 1800.) The army was required to vote 
whether they wanted him made Consul a vie, or not. 
The vote of the regiment to which father belonged was 
adverse. To punish them, the Consul sent them to the 
inglorious duty of keeping the west coast of France 
against English and emigres. Their headquarters were 
at the citadel of the Island of Re, opposite La Rochelle. 
Here were relegated and imprisoned in barracks sur- 
rounded by a high wall, no less than seventeen hundred 
refractory priests — priests who would not take the oath 
of allegiance — from all parts of France. My father 
pitied them, as, bound by their religion, they could 
only obey the injunctions of Rome not to swear allegi- 
ance to the civil constitution of the clergy. He found 
many of them educated and refined, and some of them 
good performers on musical instruments, a few being 
first-rate violinists. He greatly endeared himself to 
them by organizing in their prison an amateur orches- 
tra and leading them. As a further means of alleviat- 
ing their discomfort — they were crowded and panting 
for fresh air— he obtained a written order by which 
he could at any time take out seven priests and give 
them a walk under his own responsibility.' Whenever 

*In an article by Albert Vandal on "Les Raisons du Concordat," published in the 
Revue des Deux Mondes, for Febniary ist. igo7, I find the following statement coirob- 
orative of the information here given with reg.ard to the shamefully crowded manner in 
which these priests were lodged on the He de Ro : — "Sous le Directoire fructidorien. des 
centaines de pretres avaient etc deportcs en Guyane. La plupart y avaient peri, suppli- 
ci^s par le climat; Bonaparte ne se pressa pas de rappeler les survivans, laissant se pro- 
longer leur agonie ; c'est Tunc des taches qui pesent sur sa memoire. D'autres pretres 
par centaines avaient ^t^ entass^s dans les iles de R^ et d'Ol^ron. On mit en liberty 

[76] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

he entered the prison, there was a great rush of priests, 
all calling: "Take me, oh, take me, Monsieur Wolff." 
They knew he was an heretic, but they never attempted 
to convert him. 

Father Wounded by the Bursting of a Shell at 

Mayence. 
My father was once seriously wounded; I believe 
it was at the siege of Mayence by the Prussians, but I 
am not sure. He was in the citadel of the city, and 
walking on a rampart, when a shell burst and tore his 
cheek from the nose to just below the ear. The Col- 
onel, who happened to be near, helped him to arrest 
the bleeding, and then told him to hurry to the sur- 
geon's quarters. The wound was sewed up and in 
due time it healed perfectly. In after life the scar 
was still quite visible. 

Father Stationed at Geneva in 1805. 

In September, 1805, the main body of the army, 
which had been stationed for some time at Boulogne, 
on the seacoast, was sent in the direction of Vienna. A 
reserve corps, however, was stationed at Geneva, and 
my father's regiment formed a part of this corps. It 
was doubtless at this time (1805 ^"d a part of 1806) 
that my father became acquainted with the family of 
Mr. and Mrs. Antoine Hauloch, whose only daughter 
he subsequen tly married. 

cexix qui consentirent k signer la promesse; sur les autres. la surveillance se rel^cha. il y 
eut des 61argissements et des Evasions en masse." 

177] 



bucks of wethersfield, conn. 

Competitive Performances of Military Bands. 

In 1806, the regiment was ordered from Geneva, 
where it was then stationed, to Italy. They crossed 
the Alps by way of the Mont Cenis. At Turin a sort 
of competition took place between my father's band, 
numbering sixty instruments, and the Imperial band, 
which numbered eighty. They played alternately on 
the square before the palace, during the entire evening. 
The critics expressed their decided preference for the 
smaller band, and the Imperial conductor himself 
assented to the verdict. He asked my father: "How 
can that be? My band is recruited from the best pupils 
of the Paris Conservatoire." "This is your weak point," 
replied my father, "each one in your band wants to 
shine as a solo artist, and that spoils the unity of effect. 
My men sacrifice individual ambition to the success 
of the whole as a single entity." 

Father and his Brother Leave the Armv after a 
Service that Lasted from 1792 to 1807. 

Father and his brother were impatient to settle 
down and marry. They had probably become en- 
gaged during the winter of 1805- 1806, when the re- 
serve corps, of which their regiments formed a part, 
was stationed at Geneva. But it was not an easy matter 
to obtain an honorable dismissal from the French army 
in the very middle of a campaign — Napoleon's second 

[78] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

Italian campaign, in 1807. However, they decided to 
ask for their liberty. On the occasion of the next grand 
review,' my father stood out in front of the regiment 
as its deputy, and when Napoleon rode by with his 
staff officers he pleaded for the dismissal of his brother 
and himself. Napoleon at first objected: "I do not 
like to see fine young men like you leave the army." 
But Berthier, Napoleon's Chief of Stafif, interceded in 
their behalf, saying that he knew all about their career 
and that they had fully earned the right to receive their 
discharge. It was accordingly granted to them, but 
they were instructed to keep the aflfair secret and to 
leave the camp at night, after the men were asleep. 
But the secret was not kept. A party of their com- 
rades escorted them for some distance on their way 
and only left them after they had got beyond the dis- 
trict which was known to be infested with robbers. 
Three days later, the two brothers arrived in Geneva, 
having crossed the Alps either by way of Courmayeur 
and the Little St. Bernard, or by way of Aosta and the 
Great St. Bernard, I can not state which.' 

'At some place near Turin, in Northern Italy. 

'When I read this account. I was disposed to doubt the accuracy of that part of the 
story which relates to the personal interview with Napoleon while a grand review was in 
progress. I consulted various biographies of Napoleon and finally I discovered the fol- 
lowing statement which renders it highly probable that Uncle Philippe has reported the 
events exactly as they occurred: — 

"Chaque soldat ^tait autoris^ k sortir des rangs et k s'addresser directement k TEm- 
p^reur. en pr^sentant les armes. pour lui soumettre une demande ou une reclamation. 
Jamais aucune requete n'etait negligee; il y etait repondu sur-le-champ. Si le [j^tition- 
naire etait digne d'interet sa demande etait en general exaucee, a moins qu'elle nc fut 
de nature a provoquer une enquete." — Memoires pour servir k I'hifetoire de Napoleon, 
Par Monsieur le Baron de Meneval ; Paris 1894. 

[79] 



bucks of w e t h e r s f 1 e l d, conn. 

Pleasant Episode at the Chateau de Pregny. 

In the summer of 1811 (i. e., when grandfather's 
daughter, Henriette [my mother — A. H. B.] was one 
year old) the Chateau de Pregny,' situated at a short 
distance from Geneva, was occupied by Hortense, who 
is known to have been a passionate amateur of music 
and to have composed several songs. Years before, my 
father had met her, and now — as the superior musical 
authority in Geneva — he was frequently invited to play 
with her. She applied to him for advice in regard to, 
and for revision of, her songs. One day she sent to him 
an air which she had composed a short time previously, 
having set to music "Partant pour la Syrie" — a piece 
of poetry written by a Mr. Laborde. Having exam- 
ined the composition, my father liked it and thought 
he would give her a surprise. Accordingly, he imme- 
diately wrote the air down with piano and orchestra 
accompaniment, and in the evening of the same day, 
bringing with him a few performers, and without pre- 
vious notice, started, in the parlor of the chateau, "Par- 
tant pour la Svrie." The queen' was amazed and 
delighted, as were also all her guests. Thus, my father 
was the first to handle and play the future great and 
favorite national song of the Second Empire. 



'Bought by the Empress Josephine, Napoleon's wife, a short time previously, for 
) 90.000 francs, and afterward left liy her, in her will, to her daughter, Hortense. 
the wife of Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother. 

'Hortense was Quetn of Holland. 

[80] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN 



PART IV. 

Genealogical Schemes of the Buck, Saltonstall, 
Manwaring, Wolff, etc.. Families. 



SCHEME OF BUCK GENEALOGY. 

(Nine Successive Generations.) 



Emanuel Buck (^d. i6S8) Mary Kirby (second wife) 

Born 1623. Born 1644. 

Living in 1686. Died 1712. 

David Buck (™d. 1690) Elizabeth Hubbard, Guilford, 

Born 1667. Born 1669. Conn. 

Died 1738. Died 1735. 

ITheir son, Daniel, born in 1695, graduated 
from Yale in 1718.] 

Mr. Josiah Buck (^d i73i) Ann Deming, Boston, 

Mass. 

^B"ofn 1703. Born 1711. 

Died 1793. Died 1772. 

Daniel Buck (^d. 1775) Sarah Saltonstall 

Born 1744. Born 1754. 

Died 1808. Died 1828. 

GURDON Buck (^d. isos) Susannah Manwaring 



Born 1777. Born 1783. 

Died 1852. Died 1839. 

[81] 



BUCKS OF W ET H E RS F I E L D, CONN. 



GURDQN B uck (md. 1836) Henriette E. Wolff 

Born 1807. Born 1810. 

Died 1877. Died 1899. 

Albert H. Buck ("^d. i87i) Laura S. Abbott 



Born 1842. | 

Winifred Buck, married Lawrence F. Abbott 
I Born 1872. 

Lyman Abbott, 2d (born 1907). 

Harold Winthrop Buck (^d. 1902) charlotte Porter 



Born 1873. 



Winthrop Porter Buck (t-om 1903)^ Charlotte 
Abbot Buck (bom i904)^ gurdon Buck (torn 1906). 



COMPLETE LIST OF THE DESCENDANTS 

OF EMANUEL BUCK AND MARY KIRBY, 

HIS SECOND WIFE. 

(Married April 17, 1658.) 



Their children : — 
Mary, born January r, 1659. 

David, born April 3, 1667; died September 20, 
1738. 

Sarah, born April i, 1669. 
Hannah, born April 12, 1671. 
Elizabeth, born June 4, 1676. 
Thomas, born June 10, 1678. 
Abigail, born August 5, 1682. 

[.S2] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

No record of Emanuel's death. His widow died 
January 12, 1712. 

David Buck married Elizabeth Hubbert (or 
Hubbard), daughter of Daniel Hubbert, of Guilford, 
Connecticut, June 14, 1690. Their children : — 

Elizabeth, born February 16, 1691. 

Ann, born April 25, 1693. 

Daniel, born September 13, 1695. Graduated from 
Yale in 1718, the first year in which this institution — 
chartered in 1701 as "The Collegiate School of Con- 
necticut" — received the name of Yale College.' 

David, born March 13, 1698. 

Mary, born September 9, 1700; died March 19, 
1726. 

JOSIAH, born January 16, 1703; died February 8, 

1793- 

Joseph, born April 5, 1705; died September 14, 

1712. 

John,' born July 18, 1707; died February 4, 1726. 

Eunice, born December 19, 1709. 

Mabell, born June 5, 1712; died August 5, 1739. 
3 Elizabeth, wife of David Buck, died March 25, 
1735, aged 66 years. 

• ' ^Under this Charter the Collegiate School was begun in November, 1701, at 
Saybrook, where it continued until its removal to New Haven, in October, 1716. In 
September, 1718, the name of "Yale College" was given by the Trustees to the 
School, in honor of the benefactions of Elihu Yale, of London, lately Governor of 
the East India Company's settlement at Madras. — General Catalogue of Yale Col- 
lege, 1904-5. 

•The grave-stone of John Buck is still standing in the Wethersfield churchyard, a 
few feet northeast from the Moseley family table, and is probably the oldest monument 
of the Buck family in the churchyard. — [Roswell R. Buck] 

[83] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Mabell, their youngest child, married James 
Mitchell, May 3, 1732. Their children were: James, 
born March 2, 1733; Mabel, born January 26, 1736; 
David, born December 28, 1738. 

Mr. Josiah Buck married Ann Deming, daughter 

of Charles Deming, of Boston, May 28, 1731. Their 

children: — p 

J 

Ann, born February 26, 1732; died July 7, 1799. 

Mary, born October 31, 1733. 

Elizabeth, born April 7, 1735; died May 25, 1770, 
at Sandisfield, Massachusetts. 

Prudence, born December 15, 1737; died February 
17, 1825. 

Josiah, born April 23, 1742; died October 16, 1807. 

Daniel, born June 13, 1744; died January 6, 1808. 

Mabel, born March 22, 1748; died May 28, 1843, 
aged 95 years and 67 days. 

Ann, wife of Josiah Buck, died March 9, 1772, 
aged 62 years. 

Ann, daughter of Josiah and Ann Buck, married 
Joshua Hempsted, of Hartford, Connecticut. 

Elizabeth, the third daughter of Josiah and Ann 
Buck, married Gideon Wright, of Sandisfield, Massa- 
chusetts. 

Prudence, the fourth daughter of Josiah and Ann 
Buck, married Luke Fortune, of Wethersfield, Con- 

[S-l] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

necticut, January i8, 1776. Their only child was 
James Fortune, born October 8, 1777. 

Josiah, the older of Josiah and Ann Buck's two sons, 
married Hannah, daughter of Silas Dean, of Groton, 
Connecticut, January, 1775.' Their children were: 
Josiah, born December 29, 1775; Elizabeth, born Feb- 
ruary, 1778, died May 13, 1801 ; Barzillai Dean, born 
March 16, 1781, died September, 1842; Hannah, born 
June 23, 1785. — Hannah, wife of Josiah Buck, died 
September 3, 1824, aged 70 years. Hannah, daughter 
of Josiah and Hannah Buck, married Chester Bulkley, 
of Albany, New York. They had seven children; all 
of them died young. No descendants living. 

Mabel, daughter of Josiah and Ann Buck, married 
Justus Riley, of Wethersfield, Connecticut,' November 
10, 1774. Their children were: Ezekiel, born Sep- 
tember 20, 1775, died, unmarried ; Roswell, born Octo- 
ber 15, 1780, died, unmarried; Mabel, born July 31, 
1787, died February 17, 1795, aged 8 years; Martha, 
born August 25, 1790. The last-named daughter mar- 
ried Chester Bulkley (as his second wife) November 
20, 1833. No children. 

'Silas Dean [or Deane], born at Groton, Connecticut, December 24, 1737; died 
at Deal, England, August 23, 1789. An American statesman and diplomatist. He 
was a delegate from Connecticut to the Continental Congress, 1774-76, and was sent 
to France as a secret financial and political agent in 1776. Having made unauthor- 
ized promises to induce French oflicers to join the .American service, he was recalled 
by Congress in 1777.— Century Dictionary. 

'Justus Riley was the son of Isaac Riley, and was born June 24, 1739. He mar- 
ried, first, Martha Kilborn, January 19, 1764. They bad one child, named Justus, 
born April 17, 1766, who died unmarried. 

[85] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Daniel Buck, younger son of Josiah and Ann 
Buck, married SARAH Saltonstall, daughter of Gur- 
don Saltonstall, of New London, Connecticut, Decem- 
ber 3, 1775. Their children : — 

Anna, born November 24, 1776; died December 12, 
1776, aged 18 days. 

GURDOX, born December 30, 1777; died August 4, 
1852, aged 74 years, 7 months. 

Daniel, born October 27, 1779; died January 15, 
i860, aged 80 years, 3 months. 

Charles, born March 31, 1782; died June 5, 1858, 
aged 76 years, 2 months. 

Winthrop, born December 9, 1784; died August 19, 
1862, aged 77 years, 8 months. 

Ann, born October 12, 1786; died February 6, 1788, 
aged I year, 4 months. 

Dudley, born June 25, 1789; died May, 1867, aged 
77 years, 1 1 months. 

Daniel Buck died January 6, 1808, aged 63i/> years, 
and his wife, Sarah Buck, died November 19, 1828, 
aged 74 years. 

GURDON Buck, son of Daniel and Sarah Buck, 
married SUSANNAH, daughter of David Mawvaring, 
of New London and New York, April 20, 1805. Died 
August 4, 1852. His remains and the remains of his 
wife are buried in the Auchincloss lot at Woodlawn 
Cemetery, New York City. Their children: — - 

[86] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

David, born January 29, 1806; died August 15, 
1875, at Marblehead, Massachusetts. 

Gordon, born May 4, 1807; died March 6, 1877, 
at New York. 

Charles Dudley, born November 29, 1808; died 
September 30, 1870, at Orange, New Jersey. 

Daniel Winthrop, born November 27, 1810; died 
March 4, 1832, at Sainte Croix, West Indies. 

Sarah, born December 28, 1812; died December, 
1855, in Brooklyn, New York. 

Edward, born October 6, 18 14; died July 16, 1876, 
at Andover, Massachusetts. 

Elizabeth, born November 16, 18 16; died October 
26, 1902, at New York. 

Rebecca Coit, born November i, 1818; died July 
18, 1870, at Rye Beach, New Hampshire. 

George, born August 14, 1821; died 1824, in New 
York. 

Henry, born November 25, 1824; died September 
9, 183 1, in New York. 

David, the oldest son of Gurdon and Susannah 
Manwaring Buck, married Matilda Stewart Hall 
(born August 19, 1812), of Boston, May 8, 1837. Their 
children: — 

Florence, born July 15, 1839; died August 18, 1864. 

Stuart Manwaring, born October 24, 1842; now in 
West Virginia. 

Agnes, born and died December 7, 1847. 

[87] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Eleanor, born May 24, 1850; lives in Boston, Massa- 
chusetts. 

Henry Hall, born March 11, 1854; lives in Boston. 

Howard Mendenhall, born May 16, 1856; lives 
in Boston. 

Stuart Manwaring, oldest son of David and Ma- 
tilda S. Buck, married Grace Ross, of Bangor, Maine, 
October 30, 1872. Grace Ross was born April 8, 1849. 
Their children : — 

Clififord Ross, born February 12, 1874. Married 
Gertrude Jane Nelson. Issue: John Nelson Buck, 
born April 9, 1906. 

_ . ( Catherine, born October 27, 1877. 

[ Frances, born and died the same day. 

Theda, born July 31, 1879. 

Matilda, widow of David Buck, aged (1908) over 
95 years, is living at No. 127 Marlborough Street, 
Boston. Her health is said to be very good for one of 
her age, and her mind remains as active and clear as 
it ever was. 

GURDON Buck, second son of Gurdo. md Susan- 
nah Manwaring Buck, married Henriette i^l.S.^BETH 
Wolff, daughter of Albert Henri Wolfif, of Geneva, 
Switzerland, July 27, 1836. Their children: — 

Amelia Henrietta, born February 11, 1838; died 
1900. 

[88] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Susan Manwaring, born November i, 1839; lives 
abroad. 

Louisa Monsell, born September 9, 1841 ; died 
December 4, 1841. 

Albert Henry, born October 20, 1842; lives in 
New York. 

Alfred Linsly, born November 8, 1844; ^^^^ Febru- 
ary 10, 1848. 

Gurdon Saltonstall, born October 23, 1848; lives 
in New York; is a bachelor. 

Francis Dudley, born October 11, 1850; lives in 
New York. 

Gurdon Buck died, in New York, March 6, 1877, 
aged nearly 70 years. His widow, Henriette E. Buck, 
died September 20, 1899, aged nearly 90 years. 

Amelia Henrietta, the oldest daughter of Gurdon 
and Henriette E. Buck, married Alfred North, M. D., 
the leading surgeon of Waterbury, Connecticut, Sep- 
tember 24, 1863. Their children: — 

Helen Winthrop, born July 4, 1867; died Novem- 
ber 27, 187c . 

HenrieuJ Dudley, born June 24, 1870; died Sep- 
tember 21, 1870. 

Susie Saltonstall, born September 24, 1871, married 
Herbert S. Rowland, and lives in Waterbury, Connec- 
ticut. Their children are: Alfred North Rowland, 

[89J 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

born January i6, 1900, and Helen Rowland, born in 
1902. 

Annie Wetmore, born May 16, 1873 ; lives in Water- 
bury, Connecticut. 

Gurdon Buck, born November 6, 1874; died the 
same week. 

Albert Henry Buck, oldest son of Gurdon and 
Henriette E. Buck, married LAURA S. ABBOTT, daugh- 
ter of Rev. John S. C. Abbott, then of New Haven, 
Connecticut. Their children : — - 

Winifred, born January 2, 1872. 

Harold Winthrop, born May 7, 1873. 

Francis Dudley Buck, youngest son of Gurdon and 
Henriette E. Buck, married Clara Tillou, March 19, 
1872. Clara T. Buck, his wife, died January 19, 1873. 
Their child: — 

Francis Tillou, born January 11, 1873, married 
(1906) Neva Ten Broeck, and lives in Nyack, N. Y. 
Their child, born October 1906: Anna Ten Broeck 
Buck. 

In June, 1875, Francis D. Buck married Anna 
Tillou, sister of Clara, his first wife. No children. 

Charles Dudley Buck, third son of Gurdon and 
Susannah Manwaring Buck, married Sophronia Smith, 

[90] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

of Wilbraham, Massachusetts, September i8, 1844. 
Their children: — 

Charles Gurdon, born April 13, 1847; lives at San 
Rafael, California. 

Grace Winthrop, born July 20, 185 1; married 
Greenwood K. Oliver; died in Boston, Massachusetts. 
One daughter, Edith. 

Margaret Warriner, born April 29, 1857; lives in 
California with her brother, Charles G. Buck. 

Sarah Buck, oldest daughter of Gurdon and Susan- 
nah Manwaring Buck, married Jonathan D. Steele, of 
New York (as his second wife). Their children: — 

William Dayton, born June 30, 185 1. 

James Alexander, born July 15, 1853; married 
Helen E. Hand, of Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1886, and lives 
in New York. Their child: Winthrop Steele, born 
August 26, 1888. 

Jonathan D. Steele died in Brooklyn, New York, 
August 25, 1872. Sarah, his wife, died in December, 

1855- 

Edward Buck, the fifth son of Gurdon and Susan- 
nah Manwaring Buck, married Elizabeth G. Hubbard 
(born February 11, 1817), June 8, 1841. Their chil- 
dren : — 

Helen Alice (always spoken of as Alice), born 
April 3, 1842; lived in Andover, Massachusetts, up to 
the time of her death, March 29, 1907. 

[91 J 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

A baby boy, born June 26, 1845; died in infancy. 

Walter, born September 29, 1847; married Mary 
Westcott Laurie in 1888, and lives in Andover, Massa- 
chusetts. No children. 

Edward Buck died in Andover, Massachusetts, July 
16, 1876, in his sixty-second year. Elizabeth, his wife, 
died at the same place on May 14, 1890. 

Elizabeth Buck, the second daughter of Gurdon 
and Susannah Manwaring Buck, married John Auch- 
incloss, of New York, June 3, 1835. Their children : — 

Henry Buck, born June 7, 1836; lived in New York 
until 1904, when impaired health compelled him to 
move to Redlands, California. 

Sarah Ann, born July 8, 1838; married James Coats 
(created a baronet in 1905), the thread manufacturer, 
of Paisley, Scotland, in 1859; died in June, 1887, in 
Providence, Rhode Island. 

John Stuart, born March, 1840; died March, 1842. 

William Stuart, born March 19, 1842. 

Elizabeth Ellen (always spoken of as Ellie), born 
July 3, 1844; lives in New York. 

Edgar Stirling, born September 29, 1847; died in 
1892. 

Frederic Lawton, born February 26, 1851 ; died in 
Yokohama, Japan, November 18, 1878. 

John Winthrop, born April 12, 1853; lives in New 
York. 

[92] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

Hugh Dudley, born July 8, 1858; lives in New 
York. 

John Auchincloss died June 26, 1876, while on a 
fishing expedition in the Canada Woods. Elizabeth, 
his wife, died October 26, 1902, in New York.' 

Daniel Buck, second son of Daniel and Sarah Buck, 
married Julia, daughter of Stephen Mix Mitchell, of 
Wethersfield, Connecticut, October 14, 1805. No 
children. Mrs. Julia Buck died October 9, 1807, 
aged 27. 

Daniel Buck married (second time) Elizabeth 
Belden, daughter of Ezekiel Porter Belden, of Weth- 
ersfield, January 30, 1812. Their children: — 

Daniel, born February 26, 18 14; at last accounts 
(1904) he was alive and well at his home in San Fran- 
cisco, California. 

Ezekiel, born January 31, 1816; died (unmarried) 
March 21, 1844. 

Charles, born Dec. 26, 1817; died August 28, 1845. 

Julia, born July 16, 1820; did not marry. 

John, born December 16, 1822; died March 21, 
1847. 

Susan, born March 3, 1825; did not marry. 

Daniel Buck resided in Hartford and carried on 
business for many years with his brother Dudley, under 
the firm name of Daniel Buck & Co. He died Janu- 



'The continuation of the Auchincloss genealogy will be found on page 120. 

[93] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F 1 E L D, CONN. 

ary 15, i860, aged 80 years and 3 months. Elizabeth, 
his wife — "Aunt Betsy," as she was always called by the 
Bucks of later generations — died March 3, 1887, in the 
104th year of her age, at Wethersfield, Connecticut. 

Charles Buck, the third son of Daniel and Sarah 
Saltonstall Buck, married Catherine P. Bradford, of 
New York, March 17, 1813. No children. He died 
in Wethersfield June 5, 1858. 

Winthrop Buck, the fourth son of Daniel and Sarah 
Saltonstall Buck, married Eunice W. Parsons, daugh- 
ter of Gideon Parsons, of Amherst, Massachusetts, 
January 29, 1812. No children. Mrs. Eunice W. 
Buck died August (;, 1812, aged 24 years. 

Winthrop Buck married (second time) Eunice 
Moseley, daughter of Abner Moseley, M. D., of 
Wethersfield, Connecticut, December 28, 1814. Their 
children : — 

Martha Ann, born November 26, 181 5; did not 
marry. Died August 12, 1900. 

Winthrop, born December 16, 1816; died in 1900. 

Eunice, born December 31, 1819; did not marry. 

Maria, born January 30, 1821; married E. G. 
Howe, Esq., of Hartford. No children. 

Robert, born March 8, 1823. 

Roswell Riley, born October 21, 1826; died in 1904. 

Kate Moseley, born February i, 1833. 

[94] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 



Henry, born December 6, 1834; married Theresa 
Robinson, November 30, 1875. Issue: (i) Henry Rob- 
inson Buck, born September 14, 1876; married (1901) 
Mary L., daughter of Charles Wolcott, of Wethers- 
field. They have one son, Henry W., born May 15, 
1903. (2) John Saltonstall Buck, born May 7, 1879; 
married Florence E., daughter of Rev. George L. 
Clark, of Wethersfield. They have two children — one 
son, Richard Saltonstall, born August 10, 1906, and one 
daughter, Eleanor K., born February 12, 1909. (3) 
Charles Hone Buck, born August 2, 188 1 ; to be mar- 
ried, June, 1909, to Eunice C, daughter of Rev. John 
Barstow, of Lee, Massachusetts. Henry Buck and his 
wife live in the old homestead at Wethersfield. 

Winthrop Buck died August 19, 1862, aged 77 years, 
8 months; Eunice, his wife, died August 24, 1862, aged 
68 years, 10 months. 

Dudley Buck, the youngest son of Daniel and Sarah 
Saltonstall Buck, married Hetty G. Hempsted, daugh- 
ter of John Hempsted, of Hartford (and granddaugh- 
ter of Joshua and Ann Hempsted), September 25, 
1827. Their children: — 

George, born September 16, 1830. 

Mary, born September 8, 1832; died August 3, 1833. 

Dudley, born June 5, 1834; died November 20, 

1836. 

Mrs. Hetty G. Buck died, probably, in 1836. 

[95] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 



Dudley Buck married (the second time) Martha C. 
Adams, daughter of Nathaniel Adams, of Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire, September 12, 1837. Their chil- 
dren: — 

Dudley, born March 10, 1839; lives in Brooklyn, 
New York. He has acquired a great reputation as a 
musical composer. 

James, born November 17, 1840; died July 20, 1842. 

Dudley Buck, the father, died in May, 1867, aged 
77 years, 11 months. Martha C, his wife, died Febru- 
ary 20, 1864, aged 65 years. 

Winthrop Buck, oldest son of Winthrop and Eunice 
Moseley Buck, married Charlotte Woodhouse, daugh- 
ter of Sylvester Woodhouse, December 24, 1845. Their 
children : — 

Edward Winthrop, born February 28, 1847; lives 
in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Is married and has three 
children: (i) Edward Winthrop, (2) Edward Os- 
borne, and (3) Ellen Dudley. The older son, Edward 
Winthrop, married Cora S. Denison, of Saybrook, Con- 
necticut. They have one child, Catherine Denison, 
born July 25, 1908. 

Louis Dudley, born August 13, 1850; lives in 
Wethersfield, Connecticut. Married Laura Church, 
and they have two children living: (i) Charlotte, and 
(2) Mary Church. A third daughter, Louise Dudley, 
died in 1897. 

[96] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Robert Buck, second son of Winthrop and Eunice 
Moseley Buck, married, at Hastings, Minnesota, De- 
cember 25, 1857, Lucinda M. Emerson, who died June 
7, 1859. He married, the second time, at St. Albans, 
Vermont, Helen Frances Jones, August 5, i860. Their 
child:— 

Robert Moseley, born September 5, 1865. 

Maria Buck, the third daughter of Winthrop and 
Eunice Moseley Buck, married Edmund G. Howe, of 
Hartford, Connecticut, February 5, 1856. No chil- 
dren. Mr. Howe died April 23, 1872, aged 64 years. 

Kate Moseley Buck, the youngest daughter of 
Winthrop and Eunice Moseley Buck, married John 
Buckingham, of Chicago, Illinois, November 6, 1866. 
Their children: — 

Henry Winthrop, born November 28, 1868. 

Arthur Hale, born October 27, 1870; died August 
3, 1871. 

Clifford Hale, born January i, 1876. 

Roswell Riley Buck, third son of Winthrop and 
Eunice Moseley Buck, married Maria Catherine 
Barnes, daughter of Josiah Barnes, M. D., of Buffalo, 
New York, November 8, 1866. Their children: — 

Harriet Moseley, born August 16, 1867. 

Winthrop Seymour, born May 13, 1870; died May, 
1878. 

[97] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 



George Sturgis, born February lo, 1875. 

Henry Buck, youngest son of Winthrop and Eunice 
Moseley Buck, married Theresa Robinson, daughter 
of George Robinson, of Wethersfield, Connecticut, 
November 30, 1875. (Further details are given above.) 

George Buck, oldest son of Dudley and Hetty G. 
Buck, of Hartford, Connecticut, married Lucy Farrar 
Hall, daughter of Rev. Richard Hall, of New Ipswich, 
New Hampshire, September 8, 1853. Their chil- 
dren: — 

Horace Hall, Mary Eliza, Lucy Farrar, Mary 
Eliza, and George Dudley. 

Dudley Buck (the musical composer), the son of 
Dudley and Martha C. Buck, of Hartford, Connecti- 
cut, married Lizzie Van Wagener, of Burlington, New 
Jersey, October 3, 1865. Their children: — 

Edward Terry, Dudley, and Madelaine. 



[OS] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 



EARLIER SALTONSTALL GENEALOGY. 

(Record Defective at Many Points.) 



Thos. DE SALTONSTALL (Name of wife not known.) 



(12S0-70) 



Richard Saltonstall (Name of wife not known.) 



(1376) 



Richard Saltonstall 

(1475) 



(Name of wife not known.) 



Gilbert Saltonstall (Nameof wife not known.) 



( 1507^ 

Richard Saltonstall 



Richard Saltonstall 



Gilbert Saltonstall 



Died 1598. 

Samuel Saltonstall 



[99] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

LATER SALTONSTALL GENEALOGY. 

Samuel Saltonstall 



Died 1612. 

Sir Richard Saltonstall Grace Kaye 



Born 1586. 
Died 16S8. 

(Came to America in 1630.) 

Richard Saltonstall '^d. i633) Muriel Gurdon 



Born 1610. 
Died 1694. 

Nathaniel Saltonstall ("id. i663) Elizabeth Ward 



Born 1639. 
Died 1707. 

Gurdon Saltonstall' Elizabeth Rosewell 



Born 1656. 

Died 17w4. ^See Scheme on page 103 for origin of the name 

GURDON. 

(Governor of Connecticut from 1708 to 1724.) 

Gen. Gurdon Saltonstall Rebecca Winthrop 



Born 1708." (Daughter of John Winthrop.) 

Died 1785. 

Sarah Saltonstall Daniel Buck 

aflJ Of Wetherslield, Conn. 

Martha Saltonstall David Manwaring 

Of New London, Conn. 



[100] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

FURTHER DETAILS OF THE SALTONSTALL 
GENEALOGY. 



Gen. Gurdon Saltonstall, of New London, Connec- 
ticut, married Rebecca Winthrop, daughter of John 
Winthrop (Governor of Connecticut), March 15, 1733. 
Their children: — 

Gurdon, born December 15, 1733; died July 18, 
1762, at Jamaica, W. L He was never married. 

Rebecca, born December 31, 1734; died in New 
York. She married David Mumford, of New London, 
Connecticut, January i, 1758. 

Katherine, born February 17, 1736; died March 
30, 1 82 1, in Wethersfield. She married John Richards, 
of Wethersfield. No children. 

Winthrop, born June 10, 1737; died in New Lon- 
don, in 181 1. He married Ann Wanton, daughter of 
Governor Wanton, of Rhode Island. 

Dudley, born September 8, 1738; died at St. Dom- 
ingo, W. I. He married Frances Babcock. 

Ann, born February 29, 1740; date of death un- 
known. She married Thomas Mumford, of Norwich, 
Connecticut. No children. 

Roswell, born August 29, 1741 ; date of death un- 
known. He married Elizabeth Stewart, March 4, 
1764. 

Elizabeth, born June 12, 1742-3; died June 9, 1777, 

[101] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 



in Wethersfield. She married Silas Dean (orDeane), 
of Wethersfield. 

Mary, born March 28, 1744; died August 14, 1820, 
in New Haven, Connecticut. She married Josiah (or 
Jeremiah) Atwater, of New Haven, December 19, 
1797. 

Richard, born January i, 1747; lost at sea on his 
way to the island of Martinique, W. I. Was not mar- 
ried. 

Martha, born October 8, 1748; died October 16, 
1823, in New York. She married David Manwaring, 
of New London, Connecticut, January 15, 1767. The 
list of their children is given on another page. 

Henrietta, born March 19, 1750; died May 25, 1807, 
in New Haven, Connecticut. She married John Still 
Miller, of New Haven. 

Gilbert, born February 27, 1752; died in 1797 in 
New York. He married Harriet Babcock, March 27, 
1786. 

Sarah, born June 17, 1754; died November 19, 1828, 
in Wethersfield. She married Daniel Buck, of Weth- 
ersfield, Connecticut, December 3, 1775. The list of 
their children is given on page 86. 

Gen. Gurdon Saltonstall died September 19, 1785. 
Rebecca Winthrop, his wife, died October 30, 1776. 



[102] 



BUCKS OF WETHERS FIELD, CONN. 

ORIGIN AND ANCESTRY OF THE GURDON 

FAMILY. 

[From Burke's "Landed Gentry" and "Commoners of England."] 



This family came into England with the Conqueror, 
from Gourdon, near Cahors, on the borders of Peri- 
gord, and the name is on the roll of Battell Abbey. 

Sir Adam de Gurdon, Knight banneret, living in 
the time of Henry III, was, in that monarch's reign, 
Bailiff of Alton, but was outlawed for treason and re- 
bellion, as one of the Montford faction. He was re- 
stored, however, upon the accession of Edward, and 
constituted Keeper of the Forest of Wolmer. 

He married, first, CONST.ANTLA, daughter and heir- 
ess of Thomas Makarel, of Selborne County, South- 
ampton. 

Sir Adam married a second wife, Almerla, from 
whom he was divorced after having had two sons, the 
elder of whom was seated in Wiltshire; the younger 
settled himself in London. These sons appear to have 
been disinherited, for their father had a third wife, 
Agnes, and by her a daughter, Johanna, to whom he 
left his property in Selborne. This lady married 
Richard Achard ; and that estate bears still the name 
of Gordon Manor, and the armorial ensigns of Sir 
Adam Gurdon are those still borne by the family of 
which we are now treating. — JOHN GURDON, of Assing- 

[103] 



BUCKS OF WETHERS FIELD, CONN 



ton Hall, Sir Adam's second son (by his second wife, 
Almeria) . Of the elder son there is no further account. 

Robert Gordon (son of John) took up his abode in 
London. He died in 1343, and was succeeded by his 
son — 

John Gordon, a merchant in London, who died in 
1385, leaving a son — 

Thomas Gordon, of Clyne, in Kent, who died in 
1436, and was father of — 

John Gordon, of Clyne, who was succeeded, in 
1465, by his son — 

John Gordon, of Dedham, in Essex, who died in 
1489, leaving a son — 

John Gordon, of Dedham, who married, first, 
Marv, daughter of John Butler, Esq., of Dedham, but 
had no issue. He married, secondly, ANNE, daughter 
of John Coleman, Esq., of Lynes Hall, in Suffolk, and 
left a son — 

Robert Gordon, Esq., who married Rose, daugh- 
ter and heiress of Robert Sexton, Esq., of Lavenham, 
in Suffolk. This gentleman purchased Assington Hall 
from Sir Miles Corbet. ( It belonged, in the fourteenth 
century, to John Gurdon, second son of Sir Adam Gur- 
don.) He served the office of sheriff, and, dying in 
1577, was succeeded by his son — 

John Gordon, Esq., who married AMY, daughter 
and heiress of William Brampton, Esq., of Letton, in 
Norfolk. The family of Brampton is very ancient in 

[104] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Norfolk, and this branch had long been settled at 
Letton, in Norfolk. (Vide "Visitations" of Norfolk, 
1563 and 1613.) 

Brampton Gordon, Esq., of Assington Hall and 
of Letton, High Sheriff for Suffolk in 1625, and sev- 
eral times representative for the borough of Sudbury 
in Parliament. He married ELIZABETH, daughter of 
Edward Barrett, Esq., of Bellhouse, in Essex, and had 
issue — 

John Gurdon, his heir. 

Robert, who married Joyce, daughter of James 
Harvey, Esq., of Essex. 

Amy, who married Sir Henry Mildmay. 

Mr. Brampton Gurdon married, secondly, MURIEL, 
daughter of Sir Martyn Sedley, of Morley, in Norfolk, 
and had another son and two daughters— 

Brampton Gurdon, ancestor of the Gurdons of 
Letton, in Norfolk. 

Muriel, who married Richard Saltonstall, 
Esq., of Yorkshire (son of Sir Richard Saltonstall, who 
came to America in 1630.) 



[105] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 



WINTHROP GENEALOGY. 



John Winthr op 

I Born 1577. 

Died 1649. 
I [Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1630.] 

Joh n W inthrop 

'Born 1605. 

Died 1676. 

[Elected Governor of New Haven Colony, 1657; first 
Governor under the charter after the union of Con- 
necticut and New Haven Colonies.] 

Wait-Still Winthro p Mary Brown 

Died 1690 



[Second son of John Winthrop, 1605-1676. ] 
Born 1641. 
Died 1717. 



John Winthrop Ann Dudley 

Born 1681. Born 1684. 

Died 1747. Died 1776. 



[Daughter of Gov. Joseph Dudley. 



Rebecca Winthrop 

Born 17127" 
Died 1776. 
[Married to General Gurdon Saltonstall] 



[106] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 



DUDLEY GENEALOGY. 

[From Cotton Mather's account. For the earlier genealogy, see 
"The Sutton-Dudleys of England," by George Adlard.] 



Thomas Dudley (born in Northampton, England, 
in 1576; died in 1653) was the only surviving son of 
Captain Roger Dudley who was "killed in the wars." 
He was brought up in the family of the Earl of North- 
ampton, and afterward became a clerk to his maternal 
kinsman, Judge Nichols, and thus obtained some knowl- 
edge of the law, which proved of great service to him in 
his subsequent life. At the age of twenty, he received a 
captain's commission from Queen Elizabeth, and com- 
manded a company of volunteers under Henry IV of 
France, at the siege of Amiens in 1597. On the con- 
clusion of peace (1598), he returned to England and 
settled near Northampton, where he was in the neigh- 
borhood of Dod, Hildersham, and other eminent Puri- 
tan divines, and became himself a non-conformist. He 
enjoyed also the ministry of the Rev. John Cotton, at 
Boston, in Lincolnshire. After this, he was prevailed 
upon by the Earl of Lincoln to resume in his family the 
place he had already filled for several years with such 
eminent success, as the steward of their whole estate. 
And there he continued until the storm of persecution 

[107] 



BUCKS OF WETHERS FIELD, CONN. 

led him to join the company that were meditating a 
removal to New England. He did also another great 
and good service to the family of the Earl, by procuring 
a match between the young Earl of Lincoln, Theo- 
philus, and the daughter of the Lord Say, who was so 
wise, virtuous, and every way so well an accomplished 
lady that she proved a great blessing to the whole 
family. 

Mr. Thomas Dudley was one of the signers of the 
agreement at Cambridge, August 29, 1629, and we find 
him present for the first time at the Company's courts, 
on the 1 6th of October. He was not among the first of 
those that embarked, in the design for New England, 
which is the reason why he was not numbered among 
the Patentees, but, as soon as he came, they soon dis- 
covered his great wisdom and other abilities, which 
made them pitch upon him in the second place, after 
Mr. Winthrop in the Governor's place, for which he 
was elected in 1634. He was a man of great spirit, 
honor, and dignity, as well as of great understanding; 
suitable to the family he was descended from; and envy 
itself can not deny him a place amongst the first three 
that ever were called to intermeddle in the affairs of 
Massachusetts. He was endowed with many excellent 
abilities that qualified him thereunto. He was well 
skilled in the law; he was likewise a great historian. 
He had an excellent pen, nor was he a mean poet. But, 
in his latter times, he conversed more with God and 

[108] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

his own heart, foreseeing his own change fast approach- 
ing upon him. He died (1653) at Roxbury, Massa- 
chusetts, where he was honorably interred. 

Thomas Dudley was also the first major-general 
of Massachusetts. 

By his first wife, Dorothy , he had 

six children, the oldest of whom, Samuel, married, in 
1633, Mary, the daughter of Gov. John Winthrop. By 
his second wife, Catherine Hackburne (widow of 
Samuel Hackburne), he had three children, of whom 
the second one was 

Joseph Dudley — Governor of Massachusetts, 
Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Wight, and first 
Chief Justice of New York. He was born September 
23, 1647, and died April 2, 1720. He married Rebekah, 
daughter of Edward Tyng, and they had thirteen chil- 
dren. The ninth child, 

Ann Dudley (born August 27, 1684; died May 
29, 1776), married John Winthrop, only son of Wait- 
Still Winthrop. Of their nine children, the fourth, 

Rebeckah Winthrop (baptized January 11, 1712; 
died October 30, 1776), married GURDON SaltoN- 
STALL, son of Governor Gurdon Saltonstall. 



[109] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 



DEMING GENEALOGY. 



John Deming '""i. i637) Honor Treat 



Born 1615. Born 1616. 

Died 1705. 



Jonathan Deming (^d. i673) Elizabeth Gilbert 



Born 1639. Born 1654. 

Died 1700. Died 1714. 



Charles Deming (^d. i706) Anna Wickham 

" Born 1681. Burn 1684. 

Died 1740. Died 1711. 

Ann D eming <■"'' i^oe) josiah Buck. 

Born 1711. 
Died 1772. 



WICKHAM GENEALOGY. 



Thomas W ickham Sarah ? ' 

Died in Wethersfield in 1689. 

Thomas Wickham <"id. i673) Mary Hurlburt 

Born 1651. 

Died 1716, in Wethersfield. 

Anna Wickham *mJ i673)Charles Deming 



Born 1684. 
Died 1711. 



*Sarah Churchill was the slaughter of Josiah Churchill and Eliza Foote, who were mar- 
ried in 1638, and was perhaps the second wife of Thomas Wickham, 1st. 

[110] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN 

HUBBERT GENEALOGY. 

[More recently spelled Hubbard] 



George Hubbard Mary ? 



Died 1683. Died 1676. 

Daniel Hubbard (^d. Nov. i6, i664) Elizabeth Jordan 

I Died 1720. Daughter of John Jordan, of Guilford. 

Elizabeth Hubbard (^d. june 14, i690) David Buck 



Born Jan. 3, 1669. 
Died March 25, 1735. 



KIRBY GENEALOGY. 



John Kirby Elizabeth (?) Hinds 



Died 1677. 

Mary Kirby married Emanuel Buck 

I Born 1645. Of Wethersfield. 

I 

Mary Kirby, eldest child of John Kirby, of Mid- 
dletown, and Elizabeth, his wife, married — at fourteen 
years of age, as second wife — Emanuel Buck, of Weth- 
ersfield. Date of marriage, April 17, 1658. At the 
time of her father's death, in April, 1677, Mary Kirby 
was thirty-two years old. She, herself, died, a widow, 
on January 12, 1712. 

[Ill] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

John Kirby had been at Plymouth, in 1643, and 
at Hartford and Wethersfield ; he owned a copyhold 
estate at Rowington, near Kenilworth, in Warwick- 
shire. 

His will was dated April 6, and was proved April 
27, 1677. 

His only surviving son, Joseph, had a lawsuit 
about his father's estate. 



THE MANWARING FAMILY IN THE 
OLD WORLD. 

I Extracts from a communication made to me by Dr. Howard M. Buck, 
Boston. Massachusetts] 



"The name, as originally spelled — Mesnil-Guerin, 
comes from a little village (now Mesnil-Garnier), 
about twenty-seven kilometers from Coutances, in Nor- 
mandy. The land seems to have remained in the hands 
of the family until about 1590, when it passed into the 
possession of the Morants. In England, the primitive 
arms of the family are 'argent two bars gules,' and we 
find to-day, scattered over France, gentle families of 
the names of Mesnil and Maisniel, who bear modifica- 
tions of these arms. * * * The original invad- 
ing Mesnil-Guerin was a follower of William the Con- 
queror's nephew. He received fiefs in Norfolk and 
Cheshire. * * * fhe earlier Mainwarings 

[112] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

were a fighting race. At Nantwich the local Main- 
warings, cadets of cadets, were largely interested in the 
salt wells, and it was from that town that some of the 
family migrated to Exeter, or Devon. There had been 
other earlier bearers of the name in Devon, but they 
had been chiefly among the ranks of the clergy and 
seem to have left no descendants. The Exeter line were 
civilians, of the middle class of gentry, royal bailiflfs 
and custom house officials, speculators in tithes and 
church glebe rents. One of them seems to have been a 
confidential clerk to Sir George Peckham in his asso- 
ciation with Sir Humphrey Gilbert for the coloniza- 
tion of America, and it was from him that the Dawlish 
or Devon branch sprung. Their settlement there in 
that healthful fishing village seems to have been deter- 
mined by the fact that the family farmed the great 
tithes of the parish from the Dean and Chapter of Ex- 
eter Cathedral. There is no evidence as to what house 
they occupied. * * * "Yhe most interesting 
memorials of the family are : ( i ) The St. Anne's Hos- 
pital for eight old women, just outside the east gate of 
Exeter. It was founded by them in 1558, on the site of 
a dilapidated chapel (built in 1418), and is in opera- 
tion to-day. (2) The coat of arms of Oliver Manwar- 
ing, Benefactor, in the Guild Hall, Exeter. * * * 
"The male line in direct descent died out in Devon, 
but the connection is represented, to-day, in the Clapp 
family in Exeter." 

[113] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD 



CONN. 



LATER MANWARING GENEALOGY. 

[Mainwaring.] 



Randle Mainwaring' 



Margery Venables 

Of Over Peover, near Knutsford, England. [ISth century] 
Died 1456. 



Randle Mainwaring 



Of^Tarincham. 
Died circa 1474. 



William Mainwaring 



Of Nantwi^TT 

George Mainwaring 



Margaret Savage 

* * * Titley 
Juliana Spurway 



Of Exeter. 
Died 1570-1575, 



Oliver Mainwaring 

Of (?) London. 

Oliver Mainwaring (""d. 16I8) Prudence Esse 

Of Exeter and Dawlish. Of Sowton. 

Died 1672. P.nrn 1599. 

Oliver Mainwaring 

Of Dawlish. 

Born 1633. 

The records in England furnish no positive evidence 
beyond this point. Three circumstances, however, 
furnish strong presumptive evidence that the Oliver 
of Dawlish and the Oliver of Salem and New Lon- 
don are one and the same person: — (1) the date of 
the latter's death in 1723, "at the age of 90," and 
(2) the occupation which he followed (that of mar- 
iner). If the Dawlish Oliver had come to America 
[114] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN 



and had died in 1723, he would have been 90 years 
old. A person coming to this country in early man- 
hood from a fishing village like Dawlish would be 
likely to adopt the very occupation which the Salem 
Oliver followed during the earlier years of his life. 
(3) The appearance of the consecutive names "Pru- 
dence" and "Love" among the daughters of Oliver 
Manwaring, of New London, — names which corre- 
spond to those of Prudence Esse and Lovedy Moyle, 
mother and maternal grandmother of Oliver Main- 
waring, of Dawlish. Various circumstances which it 
is not necessary to mention here, explain easily Dr. 
Howard M. Buck's inability to find in the records 
any further evidence of the fate of Oliver Main- 
waring, of Dawlish. This very silence of the records 
is in harmony with the assumption that the latter 
emigrated to America. 



Oliver Manwaring 



Hannah Raymond 

Of Salem and New London. Of Salem. 

Died 1723 in New London, "act. 90." Born 1643. 

Died 1717. 



Oliver Manwaring (^d- i^os) Hanna Hough 

Born 1688. 
Died 1754. 



Of New London. 
Born 1679. 
Died 1754. 



William Manwaring {"'<^- i^as) Rebecca Gager 



Of New London. 
Born 1708. 
Died 1779. 



Born 1709. 
Died 1779. 



David Manwaring (md. i767) Martha Saltonstall 



Of New London and New York. 
Born 1741. 
Died 1804. 



Born 1748. 
Died 1823. 



[115] 



BUCKS OF WETHERS FIELD, CONN 



Susannah Man waring, (md. isos) Gurdon Buck. 



Born 1783. Of New York. 

Died 1839. 



FURTHER DETAILS OF THE MANWARING 
GENEALOGY. 

David Manwaring (born February 3, 1741 ; died 
May 8, 1804), married MARTHA Saltonstall, daugh- 
ter of Gurdon and Rebecca Winthrop Saltonstall, Jan- 
uary 15, 1767. Their children : — 

William, born November 12, 1767; died May, 1768. 

Rebecca, born December 27, 1768; married Elisha 
Coit, January 20, 1793. 

Hannah, born November 29, 1770; died July 19, 
1771. 

David, born May 13, 1772; died July, 1811. He 
married Lucy Colfax. 

Martha, born May 15, 1774; died November 24, 
1788. 

Gurdon, born November 10, 1776; died January 7, 

1838. He married Ann Adams. 

Lucy, born December 19, 1778; date of death un- 
known. She married David Greene Hubbard, Octo- 
ber 26, 1799; and he died December 29, 1825. 

Susannah, born September 23, 1783; died April 13, 

1839. She married Gordon Buck. 
rii6] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 

WOLFF GENEALOGY. 



Bernhardt Wolff (^d. isss ?) Marie ? 



Born circa 1550. Born circa 1556. 

Died 1610. Died 1629. 

Michel Wolf ("^d. 1615 ?> Margarete Munsch 

Keeper of one of the gates of the town of Kiinzelsau. 
Born circa 1586. Born ? 

Died 1637. Died 1634. 

Georg Wolf (n^d. 1658 ?) Margarete Seyter 



Born 1622. Born 1626. 

Died 1667. Died 1667. 

Hans Georg Wolf (">d i689?) Marie Magdalene 
B^rn 1662." Schmetzer 

Died 1730. Born 1661. 

Died 1719. 

JOHANN Georg Wolf (m^. 1717 ?) Marie Kneller 



Born 1693. Born 1695. 

Died 1748. Died 1731. 

Engelbert Heinrich Wolf (™d. 1739) Susanne Marie 



Born 1719. Schaner 

Died 1791. Born 1723. 

Died ? 

Philippe Heinrich Wolff ^"'<^- i77o?) Catherine Elis- 



Born 1743. abeth Keller 

Died ? Dates of birth and death unknown. 

Albert Henri Wolff (^d- ^^^y Amelie Antoinette 
BOTni778. Hauloch 

Died 1848. Born 1790. 

Died about 1878. 

Henriette Elisabeth Wolff (married) Gurdon Buck 

B^n 1810: 
Died 1899. 

[117] 



/^ 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 



HAULOCH GENEALOGY. 



Christian Haljloch (Name of wife unknown) 

I Of Strasbourg. 

Christian Hauloch (md. 1756) Esther Libride' 

Came to Geneva in 1753. Of Etivaz, near Chateau d'Oex. 

i\ 

'The pastor of the church at Etivaz writes to me that he can find no evidence, 
in the church or town records, of there having been a family by the name of Libride 
In that village at any time previous to 1760. 

Antoine Hauloch ^^d. i784) Frangoise Elisabeth 

Born 1757. Born 1757. Barral 

Died 1831. Died 1846 or 1847. 



Amelie Antoinette Hauloch (married) Albert Henri 

BUrtri790. Wolff 

Died about 1878. 
[See Scheme on page 117.] 



[118] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 



BARRAL GENEALOGY. 



Henri Barral (Nameof wife unknown) 

I Died circa 1586. 

I 

Maurice Barral (md. issi) Marie Perrot 

Died 1615. Died 1615. 

I Both of Geneva.] 

Jean Pierre Barral (™d- 1636) Helene Petit- Maistre 

Died circa 1647. 

Pierre Barral ("i^. i663) Jeanne St. Pierre 

Born circa 1638. 
Died 1705. 

Jean Louis Barral (^^- '^ne) Jeanne Rambour 



Born 1677. 
Died 1723. 



Jean Baptiste Barral (md. 1755) Rose Charpillier 



Born 1713. (Cherbuliez.] 

Died 1761. 

Fran^oise Elisabeth Barral (md.) Antoine Hauloch 

Born 1757. Of Geneva. 

[See Schemes on pages 117 and 118.) 



[119] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 



PART V. 



MORE RECENT GENEALOGY OF THE DE- 
SCENDANTS OF JOHN AUCHINCLOSS 
AND ELIZABETH BUCK. 

(See also page 92.) 



(i) Children of Henry B. Aiichincloss and Mary 

Cabell, of Charlottesville. Virginia. 
Margaret Cabell, born October i, 1861; married 
Richard M. Colgate, April 7, 1885. 

Henry A. Colgate, born September 29, 1891. 
Muriel Colgate, born November 9, 1897. 

Henry Stuart, born March i, 1863; died an infant. 

Arthur Stirling, born October 9, 1867; married, 
June II, 1896, Margaret Gresham Barry. 

Elizabeth BELDEN,born June 17, 1869; died Novem- 
ber 25, 1876. 

John, Jr., born December 8, 1872. 

James Cabell, born May 26, 1876; died September 7, 
1882. 

Mary Dudley, born April 12, 1877. 

(2) Children of Sarah Ann Auchincloss and Sir 

James Coats. 
Elizabeth Winthrop, born August 27, 1858; married 
Thomas Glen Arthur, of Paisley, Scotland. 

James Coats Arthur, born 

Alice Dudley Arthur, born January 31, 1891. 

[120] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

Annie McKenzie, born May 27, i860; married 
George Gordon King, June 16, 1891. 

Mary LeRoy, died an infant. 
Dorothy Gordon, born April 16, 1895. 
Violet Gordon, born January 18, 1897. 
Edward, born March 2, 1901. 

Alice Dudley, born November 29, 1862; died March 
2, 1889; married Theodore Frelinghuysen in Au- 
gust, 1886. 

T. Frederick Frelinghuysen, born September 5, 1886. 
James Coats, died an infant. 

Stuart Auchincloss, born March 20, 1868; married 
Jane Muir Greenless, September 8, 1891. 

James Stuart, born 1894. 

Muir Dudley. 

Margaret, born March 18, 1901. 

Alfred Manwaring, born April 12, 1869; married 
Elizabeth Barnevvell, September 4, 1895. 

Archibald, born 

Mabel Van R.. born June 2, 1899. 
Elizabeth, born December, 1902. 

James Munroe, born January 6, 1875 ; married Annie 
Caswell, of Providence, R. I. 

(3) Children of William S. .Auchincloss and Martha 

T. Kent. 

James Stuart, born April 12, 1872; married April 3, 
1899, to Hazel Hulbert. 

William Stuart, born January 21, 1900. 

[121] 



.y 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

Jane Kent, bom September 21, 1874; married Henry 
Allen Truslow, on April 18, 1900. 

James Laidlaw, born February 21, 1901. 
Frederick Kent, born November 9, 1902. 
William, born, August 20, 1904. 
Francis Allen, born May 4th, 1906. 
Elizabeth, born May 18, 1908. 

William Kent, born October 7, 1877. 

(4) Children of Edgar Stirling Auchincloss and Ma- 
ria LeGrange Sloan. 

Samuel Sloan, born March 2, 1872; married October 
189 — , to Annie Agnew. 

Samuel Sloan, Jr., born October 12, 1903. 

Edgar Stirling, born December 13, 1875; married 
February 14, 1899, to Marie Mott, who died Sep- 
tember 3, 1899; married April 14, 1903, Catherine 
S. Agnew. 

Mary Bliss, born April 6, 1904. 
Elizabeth Ellen 3d, born June 27. 1905. 
Katrina, born October 7, 1907. 

Elizabeth Ellen, Jr., born April 24, 1877; died De- 
cember 29, 1904. 

Hugh, born December 28, 1878; married September 
29, 1908, Frances C. Newlands. 

Charles Crooke, born September 24, 1881; married 
June 19, 1906, Rosamond Saltonstall, of Boston. 

Rosamond Saltonstall 2d, born April 2. 1907. 
[122] 



BUCKS OF VVETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

James Coats, born January 19, 1885 ; engaged to Fran- 
ces Lee Alexander. 
Gordon, born June 15, 1886. 
Reginald LeGrange, born January 20, 1891. 

(5) Children of John Winthrop Auchincloss and Jo- 

anna Hone Russell. 

Charles Russell, born November 24, 1881 ; married 
May 25, 1905, to Helen P. Russell, of Middletown, 
Connecticut. 

Helen Russell, born January 22, 1907. 

Elizabeth, born May ii, 1884; married January 12, 
1907, to Percy Hall Jennings. 

Percy Hall, born October 7, 1907. 
Joanna Russell, born December 15. 1908. 

John Winthrop, born May 22, 1886; died March 

— 1888. 
Joseph Howland, bom May 22, 1886. 
Joanna Russell, born May 25, 1889. 
Caroline, born January 7, 1891. 

(6) Children of Hugh Dudley Auchincloss and 

Emma Brewster Jennings. 

Esther Judson, born November 9, 1895. 
Hugh Dudley, born August 28, 1897. 
Annie Burr, born July 22, 1902. 

[123] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 



PART VI. 

BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL 
DATA RELATING TO THE ABBOTTS. 



Obituary Notice of the Rev. John S. C. 
Abbott, D. D. 

[From Harper's Weekly of July 7, 1877.] 

The Rev. John S. C. Abbott died at his residence in 
Fair Haven, Connecticut, June 17, after a lingering ill- 
ness. As a popular historian he probably ranked sec- 
ond to no one in the United States. 

Mr. Abbott was one of five sons, three of whom have 
left a remarkable impress on the age and nation. The 
oldest, Mr. Jacob Abbott, may be regarded almost as 
the creator of juvenile literature in this country. His 
"Rollo" books are still without a peer in their peculiar 
department; his "Harper Story Books" and his "Red 
Histories" (to which latter series Mr. John S. C. 
Abbott also contributed) are a permanent classic; and 
his "Young Christian" has been published in almost 
every European language and in some heathen dialects, 
we believe. Mr. Gorham Abbott was a pioneer in the 
work of female education, and the now defunct "Sping- 
ler Institute" became the model of other more ade- 

[124] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

quately endowed, and therefore, longer-lived institu- 
tions. Mr. Charles and Mr. Samuel Abbott are less 
widely known, but each of them rendered good service 
to the work of education by his remarkably successful 
school for boys. Two only of the five brothers are still 
living — Charles and Jacob; Samuel died some thirty 
years ago, Gorham about two years since. 

The father, Jacob Abbott, a citizen of Maine, where 
the boys spent their boyhood, was a Puritan of the very 
noblest type — a man of the most unbending conscience, 
tempered with the most genial sympathy and the largest 
love. "He had," said one of his old friends, "a remark- 
able talent for being happy"; and this talent descended 
to his children. He was an agent for large land-owners 
in the forests of Maine, and became in time a large 
owner himself, and to the present day the name of "old 
Squire Abbott" is held in affectionate reverence by the 
children of the men with whom he had to deal. The 
mother had a rich and strong and happy religious faith. 
To her, death had never any terrors; she looked to it 
through years of feeble health as a summons to her 
Father's home; and to the influence of her example 
Mr. Abbott attributed his own happy thoughts of death 
and the life beyond. 

In Hallowell, where the earlier years of the boy 
were spent, was an English family by the name of 
Vaughan, into which his brother, Mr. Jacob Abbott, 
afterward married. In the Vaughan mansion was 

[125] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

what was in those days a magnificent library of ten or 
twelve thousand volumes, which was placed at the ser- 
vice of the Abbott boys. The opportunity was appre- 
ciated and used, and to this circumstance may be, per- 
haps, attributed the literary tastes and capabilities of 
later years. John was, however, no bookworm. He 
thoroughly enjoyed the sports of his time, and was a 
favorite leader among his associates. In his reminis- 
cences, penned — or rather penciled — on his sick-bed, 
he gives a graphic account of his exploits in building 
snow forts and excavating snow caves in the mammoth 
drifts of the Maine winters. 

The father had the Puritan ambition to give his 
boys a complete education; and this included, accord- 
ing to the ideas of those times, a course in theology as 
well as in secular learning. So he sent them all through 
college and the theological seminary, leaving them to 
take what profession in after-life they might choose or 
Providence might open to them. 

Mr. John Abbott was fitted by his native constitu- 
tion for the ofiice of a minister, and was, perhaps, the 
only one of the brothers who was so specially fitted. 
He had by nature a rare command of language; he was 
a natural rhetorician; he was a remarkable word- 
painter; he was a born advocate; he was an enthusiast 
in whatever he believed or whatever he undertook. He 
was, therefore, from the first a remarkably popular 
preacher, at a time when the power of the painter and 

[126] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

the language of feeling were not so common in the 
pulpit as they are in our day. His first parish was one 
of the largest and most important in New England, 
outside of Boston — that of Worcester, Massachusetts; 
and he left it to occupy successively that of Roxbury, a 
growing suburb of Boston, and that of Nantucket, at 
that time one of the largest and most flourishing com- 
munities in the State. 

Meanwhile he had drifted into literature in a singu- 
lar way. He had organized a Maternal Association in 
his first parish, and to it he delivered a course of famil- 
iar lectures on the duties of mothers. These, after their 
delivery, he put into a little book, which a Boston pub- 
lisher accepted from the unknown author with some 
hesitation. But the book was small, the season was dull, 
the risk was light, and the volume was printed. This 
was the now famous "Mother at Home." It had just 
those qualities of simplicity of expression, intense prac- 
ticality of suggestion, and warmth of feeling which 
conspire to make both useful and successful literature. 
The unpretending little treatise was straightway re- 
published in England, and thereafter successively in 
most of the European languages. In Calcutta, in 
Athens, in Constantinople, even in Africa, the number 
of copies printed is unknown, but it is simply pro- 
digious. 

While Mr. John Abbott was thus successfully pur- 
suing the double work of pastor and author, his elder 

[127] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

brother (Jacob), also a successful author, had estab- 
lished the famous Mount Vernon School in Boston. 
The underlying principle of this school was that pupils 
could be better governed by the moral force of reason 
than by fear and coercion. So fully was this principle 
carried out that there were absolutely no rules in the 
school except those which the pupils made for them- 
selves, and no other restraint than such as the school, 
as a well-regulated community, exercised over itself. 
The success was so great that the four brothers, Jacob, 
John, Gorham and Charles, resolved to unite in estab- 
lishing a similar school on a larger scale, and selected 
for the field of their operations the City of New York. 
This was over forty years ago, and at that time the 
Turkish idea of female education was not eliminated 
from American society. Is it even yet? The brothers 
entered upon what seemed to others a hazardous ex- 
periment. Their earnestness and the fundamentally 
correct principles which underlay their plan made the 
school from the first a success. There is probably to-day 
in that city no school for young ladies where such large 
liberty is enjoyed as was possessed by the pupils in the 
Abbott School; and we believe that we are perfectly 
safe in saying that it was never in a single instance 
abused. The scholars had the confidence of their 
teachers, and, partly as a consequence, the teachers had 
the affection of their scholars. 

But Jacob and John could not escape the fascina- 

[128] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

tions of literature; Gorham withdrew to establish a 
separate school; John began his famous history of Na- 
poleon, in Harper's Magazine, and, becoming more and 
more interested in it, left the school to devote himself 
to its completion, and the school was discontinued in 
the midst of its prosperity. 

From that time the life of Mr. John S. C. Abbott 
has been not, indeed, a quiet one, but an uneventful one. 
He has always been fond of change, and it is only in the 
latter years of his life that he has had a permanent 
home. While chiefly known to the public as a writer 
of popular history, he has been, during most of the 
time, a successful preacher and pastor. He has spent 
the week in his historical studies and writing, and has 
gone into the pulpit on the Sabbath and preached, 
always to full churches, but always extemporaneously, 
from his abundant treasures. His career in this respect 
has illustrated the truth that the true pulpit prepara- 
tion is not that of the week, but that of the whole life. 
He has found an especial delight in taking parishes 
which were, from one reason or another, in a somewhat 
typhoidal condition, and building them up again, to 
leave them, as soon as they were really able to support 
a competent pastor, to the care of successors. He has 
thus served successively five different parishes, which 
owe their present prosperity largely to his labors. 

As an author, Mr. Abbott's most important works 
have been "The Mother at Home," "The Child at 

[129] 



BUCKS OF WETHERS FIELD, CONN. 

Home"; the histories of "Napoleon Bonaparte," the 
"French Revolution," the "Civil War," and "Frederic 
the Great"; his contributions to the "Red Histories," 
the "American Pioneers and Patriots," and a series of 
State histories. But these are only a small proportion 
of his actual contributions to the literature of the age. 
Other histories hold a higher place in the great libra- 
ries, but the works of no other historian have been more 
widely read or more truly useful. This is not the place 
for a literary critique on his works. But this may be 
said, that while no other historian has been more se- 
verely and even savegely criticised, few errors have 
ever been detected in his narratives. No work was 
ever subjected to a severer scrutiny than his "Napoleon 
Bonaparte"; but while his arguments were assailed, 
and even his motives were called in question at the time, 
only one considerable error was detected in any state- 
ment of fact, and that in a matter of unimportant detail. 
While, too, he is not a preacher in his books, he never 
ceases to be a Christian, and the religious spirit, though 
never offensively prominent, is never absent. 

Mr. Abbott had a large family — two boys and five 
girls — who lived to maturity. The oldest son, ap- 
pointed United States District Attorney in Florida 
during the war, under President Lincoln, died soon 
after going South. One of the daughters also died 
some years since. Another daughter is at the head of 
a very successful school in New Haven, of which she 

[130] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

was the founder. The other daughters are married, 
and are living, one near Boston, the others in New 
York or vicinity. 

Mr. Abbott's personal appearance was fine, and 
the expression of his face was peculiarly winning. He 
inherited from his father the "remarkable talent for 
being happy," and imparted it to every one with whom 
he came in contact. The last year of his life, though 
at times he suffered greatly, was one of great peace and 
joy, and his dying was a simple going home to be at 
rest in his Heavenly Father's presence, and with the 
friends who had gone before." (End of obituary 
notice.) 

'Heredity goes for little, as a rule, in transmitting literary taste and ability, as 
we often observe. Three-quarters of a century ago, five Abbott boys graduated at 
Bowdoin College — one of them, John .S. C. Abbott, the uncle, and another, Jacob 
Abbott, the father of the four Abbott boys, Henjamin Vaughan Abbott, Austin Ab- 
bott, Lyman Abbott and lidward .\bbott, who, about forty years ago all graduated 
from the University of the City of New York. John S. C. Abbott and Jacob Abbott 
were both Congregational ministers, and did much in that profession. Besides, they 
made their names known wherever the English language is spoken, by their writings, 
including a series of biographies and histories, so comprehensive, instructive and 
methodical that the press of the whole country commend them: and President Lin- 
coln said to Mr. John S. C. Abbott shortly before his death: "I want to thank you 
and your brother for Abbott's Series of Histories. They give me, in brief compass, 
just that knowledge of past men and events which I need. I have read them with 
the greatest interest." 

Now. this, the second generation, Benjamin Vaughan, Austin and Lyman, are 
the authors of Abbotts' Digests and other law books, a hundred volumes or more in 
all. .\bbotts' Digests are known to every English-speaking lawyer and are on the 
shelves of every considerable law library in the United States. Benjamin Vaughan 
Abbott, the pioneer, is dead; but his books are a living and lasting monument to his 
memory. Austin Abbott, the second brother, an equal sharer in the merit of these 
books, is now at the head of the faculty of the University Law School where Benja- 
min Vaughan was, at one time, a professor. Dr. Lyman Abbott, formerly of 
Abbott Brothers, counsellors at law, has to-day one of the most enviable pulpits in 
Christendom, and is also a distinguished journalist. 

Herbert Spencer ought to have the case of these two generations of Abbotts, as 
evidence, in support of his theory of the Law of Heredity. 

[131] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

John S. C. Abbott was one of that distinguished 
class of 1825 at Bowdoin College which counted among 
its members Henry W. Longfellow, Nathaniel Haw- 
thorne, George Cheever, and Jonathan Cilley. Frank- 
lin Pierce and William Pitt Fessenden were in college 
at the same time. 

In the Evening Standard, of Boston, (December, 
1898) there was published an account of a severe storm 
which occurred at Nantucket on November 27, 1898. 
In the course of his narrative, the writer of this account 
says: *'Some of the older residents think the storm has 
not been surpassed in severity since the remarkable 
gale of 1842, when the ship Joseph Starbuck, of Nan- 
tucket, was lost while on her way to Edgartown in tow 

[The foot-note (p. 131) which ends at this point forms an integral part of the pre- 
ceding obituary notice. Twenty-nine years have elapsed since it was written, and fur- 
ther evidence has accumulated in favor of the belief that a gift for successful literary 
vi'ork is hereditary in the Abbott family. Among the descendants of Jacob Abbott I 
may mention two of the sons of Lyman Abbott as having inherited this gift — ^Lavirence 
F. and Ernest Abbott, both of whom are on the editorial staff of Tlu: Outlook. A 
third son, Herbert Abbott, now connected with Smith College, Massachusetts, was 
for a tiniL- Professor of KngHsli Literature in Columbia ITniversity, New York. 
One of liie daughters of John S. C Abbott— Laui a S. AM.olt, now "Mrs. Albert H. 
Buck — published (in 1873 or 1874) two books for children: "Tiptoe," and "How 
Tiptoe Grew." A notice published in a Boston newspaper said of the first of these 
books: "'Tiptoe' is the title of a charming book by Katherinc Williams [the noni de 
plume adopted by the authoress]. The story is capitally told and will not fail to 
engross the interest of young readers." A notice in the New York Tribune says of 
it: "One of the best and sweetest children's books on which we have lately fallen 
is 'Tiptoe,' by Katharine Williams (American Tract Society, Publishers)." Willis J. 
Abbott, the son of the late Waldo Abbott — the oldest child of John S. C. Abbott — 
is a well-known journalist and writer of fiction. His "The Boys in Blue" which 
gained a great popularity, shows clearly that he also has inherited from his grand- 
father the gift of telling a story in a simple and fascinating manner. It would be 
very difficult to find another instance of a family in which so many of its members, 
belonging to three successive generations, give evidence of possessing well-marked 
literary gifts.— A. H. B.] 

[132] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

of Steamer Telegraph, to fit for a whaling voyage — 
and it happened exactly fifty-six years ago, on a Sun- 
day, the 27th of November, 1842. Five ladies, wives 
and relatives of the officers, were on board. The ship, 
in tow of steamer Telegraph, left Nantucket on Satur- 
day and the wind increased to a gale, blowing so strong 
that the steamer could make no headway. The ship 
anchored in Vineyard Sound and the steamer went into 
Edgartown. The ship dragged her anchors all night, 
and on Sunday morning was in Nantucket Sound, 
drifting to the eastward. 

"All three masts were cut away, but she still dragged 
until she struck bottom in the vicinity of Great Point. 
It was a day of intense anxiety for all interested. The 
steamboat company ofifered to send the steamer Massa- 
chusetts to rescue the people on board if a volunteer 
crew could be found. The Rev. John S. C. Abbott, 
who was then pastor of the First Congregational 
Church in Nantucket, immediately volunteered to be 
one of the rescue party. This ofYer inspired confidence 
in the officers and crew of the steamer, and she went 
to the rescue with Mr. Abbott on board, and succeeded 
in saving the whole party. The officers and crew and 
lady passengers were taken from the ship to the steamer 
in a whaleboat, and the ship eventually went to pieces." 



[133] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

OBITUARY NOTICE OF MRS. JOHN S. C. 

ABBOTT. 



From the New York Times, of May 21, 1896, I 
have copied the following obituary notice: 

"Mrs. John S. C. Abbott, widow of the historian, 
died on Monday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. 
Oliver Johnson, in Fishkill Village, New York. She 
was eighty-six years of age. Mrs. Abbott was of New 
England birth and family, and a native of Boston. Her 
father, Abner Bourne, was one of the public-spirited 
merchant citizens of Boston at the beginning of this 
century.' 

"She was married at an early age to the Rev. John 
S. C. Abbott, during his first pastorate of the Congre- 
gational Church in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and in- 
spired him at that time to write the "Mother at Home," 
in 1834, which is said to have probably entered more 
homes than any other English book, except the Bible. 
It has been published in many languages. 

"Mrs. Abbott was a constant and valuable aid to 
her husband in his literary labors, although she had 
the care of a large family. Many of the fifty-four 
volumes Dr. Abbott wrote were transcribed and in- 
dexed by her pen. 

"Mrs. Abbott was a hospitable and social woman, 
who attracted young and old. She was a tireless worker 

'For tliL- Itourne and Williams genealogies, see t'artlier on, page 138- 

[134] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN, 

in the New England parishes of which Dr. Abbott was 
pastor, and in the Abbott Institution for Young Ladies 
in New York City, in which he was the pioneer in the 
higher education of young women in this country. 
Many college students of Bowdoin and Yale will re- 
member with much pleasure her receptions and home 
life." 



ABBOTT GENEALOGY.' 



[From "A Genealogical Register of the Descendants 

of George Abbot, of Andover," published in 

Boston in 1847.] 

"Nothing is certainly known of George Abbot pre- 
viously to his emigrating from England to this country. 
He and the first settlers in Andover were Puritans. 
George Abbot emigrated, as tradition reports, from 
Yorkshire, England, about 1640, and came over in the 
same vessel with Hannah Chandler, who, several years 
after, became his wife. It might, under other circum- 
stances, seem unbecoming in us to speak of the virtues 
of the descendants of our ancestor, but, in a Genea- 
logical Register prepared for the family, it will not 
be thought to involve any impropriety if we commend 
to the living those, as we think, characteristic good qual- 
ities for which we honor the dead. Any one, familiar 

'For an explanation of the reasons which led to the change in the spelling of 
the name Abbot, !-ee page 141. 

[135J 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

with those descended from George Abbot, can not but 
be struck with the fact that, from his time to the pres- 
ent (1847), they have, as a family or tribe, possessed a 
marked character of their own. The number of his 
grandchildren was at least seventy-three; of these, as 
many as forty-four had families; thirty of these settled 
in Andover. A large number of his posterity remains 
there. As members of the community, they have been 
industrious, temperate, fond of home, minding their 
own business, honest in their dealings, punctual in pay- 
ing their debts, and good citizens. 

"In 1647, George Abbot married Hannah Chand- 
ler, daughter of William and Annis Chandler. Her 
brother, Thomas Chandler, was among the first settlers 
of Andover, and progenitor of a numerous race. 
George Abbot died December 24, 1681, aged 66." 



DIRECT LINE OF ABBOTT ANCESTRY. 



The genealogical record of the descendants of 
George Abbot, so far as it relates to the branch of the 
family to which Jacob and John S. C. Abbott belong, 
is as follows: — 
George Abbot '"^i 1647) Hannah Chandler 



Andover, Mass Born 1629. 

Born 1615 Died June 11, 1711. 

Died Dec. 24, 1681. 



[136] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN 



Nathaniel Abbot (■"<!• i695) Dorcas Hibbert 



Andover, Mass. Died Feb. 7, 1743. 

Born July 4, 1671. 
Died Dec. 1749. 

Joseph Abbot (^d. 1731 ) Deborah Blanchard 



Andover, Mass. Died July, 1773. 

Wilton, N. H., after 1776. 
Born Feb. 2, 1705. 
Died Aug. 23, 1787. 



Jacob Abbot ("»d. i767) Lydia Stevens 

Wilton, N. H. Died June, 1821. 



Brunswick, Me., after 1802. 
Born March 22, 1746. 
Died March 5. 1820. 



Jacob Abbot ('"^- i798) Betsy Abbot 

Concord, N. H. Born Aug. 6, 1773. 



Brunswick. Me. Died July 30, 1846. 

Farmington, Me. 
Born Oct. 20, 1776. 
Died circa 1848. 



John Stevens Cabot Abbott (md. i830) jane Williams 

Bourne 

Bom Sept. 8, 1810. 
Died May 19, 1896. 





Worcester, Mass. 




Nantucket, Mass. 




New York City. 




New Haven, Conn. 




Born Sept. 18, 1805. 




Died June 17, 1877. 



Laura S. Abbott wife of Albert H. Buck. 



:i37] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN 



Winifred Buck ("id ) Lawrence F. Abbott 



Born Jan. 2, 1872. Son of Lyman Abbott, 

LL. D., D. D. 
Harold Winthrop Buck, (md.) Charlotte Porter 
Born May 10, 1873. Niagara Falls, N. Y. 

Lyman Abbott 2D 

I Born August 6, 1907. 

I 

[See also pages 82 and 90.] 



BOURNE AND WILLIAMS GENEALOGIES. 

Bourne Genealogy." 
Thomas Bourne <^^-^ ? 



Of Marshfield, Mass. 



John Bourne <"''') Alice Burbridge 



Thomas Bourne '"^^ '^sn Elizabeth Rouse 



Born 1647. 



JosiAH Bourne ("^d.) 



Ebenezer Bourne (^d 1744) Abigail Newcomb 

Born 1724. Born June 7, 1720. 

Died 1759, at Pembroke. Died Dec. 10, 1821, 

at Middleboro. 



'From "Newcomb Family," by John B. Newcomb, of Elgin, Illinois. Published 
at Elgin, Illinois, in 1874. 

[138] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

Deacon Abner Bourne (">d.) Mary Torry 

And CaptaiHl (Second son.) Daughter of Haviland 

Born Oct. 23, 1747. Torry, of Plymouth. 

Died March 25, 1806. 

Abner Bourne <'"<J > Abigail Williams 

Born 1781, in Middlcboro, Mass. 
Died 1840, in Boston. 



Williams Genealogy." 



Samuel Williams ("^d.) Bathsheba Godfrey 

Of Taunton. 

Col. Gideon Williams (""d.) Annah Burt 

Born 1745, in Taunton. Born 1755, in Berkeley, 

Died 1830, in Roxbury. Bristol Co., Mass. 

Died 1838, in Boston. 

Abigail Williams («"<!•) Abner Bourne 

Born 17^27 in Taunton. 
Died 1845, in Boston. 



ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHICAL DATA 

RELATLXG TO THE ABBOTTS. 



The first JACOB ABBOT (1746-1820) — known in the 
later years of his life as Hon. Jacob Abbot — built the 

•Some descendants of Richard Williams are given in Samuel Hopldns Emory'i 
"liinistry of Taunton," 1853. 

[139] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

first mills on Sonhegan (now Skowhegan) River, in 
Wilton, New Hampshire; was employed in town busi- 
ness; was first Representative to the General Court; 
first Justice of the Peace in the town; Justice of the C. 
C. Pleas ; and a Counsellor of State. He moved to And- 
over, Massachusetts, and assisted Hon. Samuel Phillips 
in his business, and was a Trustee of Phillips Academy. 
In 1797, he moved to Concord, New Hampshire, traded 
in goods, and represented the town in the General 
Court three years. In 1802, he moved to Brunswick, 
Maine; was a useful member of the Board of Over- 
seers of Bowdoin College, and a Senator for the County 
of Cumberland, in the Legislature of Maine. In the 
several offices which he sustained, he was capable, 
faithful, and useful; and in the several places in which 
he lived, he was influential in promoting peace, good 
order, and prosperity. 

"His mind was active, his perceptions quick, his 
memory prompt, his judgment sound, his disposition 
mild. He was facetious, affable, and benevolent, and 
had a fund of anecdote. Early impressed with a sense 
of right and wrong, he was upright in his dealings, 
faithful in business, a firm friend and supporter of 
religion and religious institutions, and active in the 
cause of education. One son and seven (should be five) 
grandsons have had a collegiate education. He died 
in Brunswick, at the age of 74. 

"The second JACOB ABBOT (1776-circa 1846) lived 

[140] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

at first in Concord, New Hampshire, and then in 
Brunswick, Maine. During the latter part of his life, 
he resided in Farmington, Maine, where he was much 
beloved and highly respected by his fellow townsmen. 
He was generally addressed as Squire Abbot, and was 
for many years the chief personage in the town and 
vicinity. Two of his sons — Jacob and John S. C. — 
became very distinguished as authors." — A daughter of 
the latter, Laura S. Abbott, is the mother of Winifred 
and Harold Winthrop Buck; and Winifred Buck, in 
turn, is now (1905) the wife of Lawrence F. Abbott, 
a grandson of Jacob Abbott (3d) and son of the Rev. 
Lyman Abbott. The name Abbot was changed to 
Abbott at the time when Jacob Abbot, 3d, was a student 
in Bowdoin College (circa 1822). The change was 
made for the purpose of avoiding the necessity of using 
the expression "Junior." It does not appear, however, 
why the other brothers should also have adopted the 
change in the manner of spelling the name. The old 
records show that in the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
turies the name was spelled in a variety of ways : — Abot, 
Abat, Abbot, Abbat, Abbott, etc. 



[141] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 



PART VII. 



PORTER AND GRANGER GENEALOGIES. 



I. Porter Genealogy. 

[The following genealogical sketch (pp. 14.V146) has been con- 
densed from an article written by Charles Mulford Robinson, of 
Rochester, New York, who is himself a grandson of the late Albert H. 
Porter and Julia Mathews. The article in its complete form was 
published in the Papers of the Buffalo Historical Society.] 



foHN Porter ("ti 
? 



?) 



Born 

Died Apr. 22, 1648. 

Windsor, Conn. 



Samuel Porter <"id. i659) 



Rose ? 

Born ? 
Died in 1647. 



Hannah Stanley 

Born ? 

Died Sept. 18, 1702. 



Born 1626 in England. 
Died Sept. 6, 1689. 
Windsor, Conn. 
Hadley, Mass. 



Nathaniel Porter ("^d. Nov. is, i7on Mehitabel Buell 



Born Nov. 15, 1680. 
Died ? 
Hadley, Mass. 



Nathaniel Buell Porter ("id Nov. 17. 1724) Eunice 

Horton 



Born Apr. 29, 1704. 
Died Nov. 4, 1739. 
Lebanon, Conn. 



[142J 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

Col. Joshua Porter ("^d. May 14, 1759) Abigail Buell 

Borirjune"26; 1730. 
Died Apr. 2, 182S. 
Salisbury, Conn. 

Augustus Porter <md. Jan. 24. isoi) j^ne Howell 

Born Jan. 18, 1769. Born Apr. 22, 1779. 

Died June 10, 1849. Died Jan. 31, 1841. 

Niagara Falls, N. Y. [Second Wife.] 

Albert H. Porter ("^d. oct. 14. 1829) juiia Mathews 



Born Oct. 24, 1801. Born April 16, 1808. 

Died Jan. 23, 1888. Died November 25, 1899 
Niagara Falls, N. Y. 

Albert Augustus Porter (md. sept. ii, i862) juUa e. 



Born May 4, 18371 TefFrCV 

Died March 15, 1888. "^ ^ 

Niagara Falls, N. Y. 

Charlotte R. Porter Harold Winthrop Buck 



Born Jan. 28, 1878. Born May %^1873. 

Niagara Falls, N. Y. 

W. Porter Buck (Born June 5. 1903.) 

Charlotte Abbot Buck (Bom October 16, 1904.) 

Gurdon Buck (B"--" January 27, 1906.) 
Niagara Falls, N. Y. 

John Porter, who came to New England in 1637, 
was descended from William de la Grande, who came 
over from France to England in the train of William 
the Conqueror. That Norman knight had a son named 
Ralph, who, as gentleman of the bed chamber to King 

[143] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

Henry I, was called "Grand Porteur," and thus gained 
the family surname. 

In October, 1637, John Porter, in company with 
others, removed to Windsor, on the Connecticut River, 
above Hartford. He was, for that period, a man of 
considerable substance, as appears by his will, printed 
in the public records of Connecticut. 

Samuel Porter was born in England in 1626. He 
was, therefore, about thirteen years old when he came 
over with his father to this country. He resided first 
at Windsor, then at Hartford, on the Connecticut 
River, and finally at Hadley, Massachusetts. 

His wife, Hann.ah Stanley, was the daughter of 
Thomas Stanley, who came from England in the ship 
"Planter" to Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1635. From 
Lynn he went to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1636, and 
thence to Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1659; and it was 
in this same year that his daughter married Samuel 
Porter, of Windsor, a settlement about thirty-five or 
forty miles south of Hadley. 

Nathaniel Porter was born November 15, 1680, 
presumably at Hadley, Massachusetts. He died at 
Fort Anne, in what is now Washington County, New 
York. In 1708, he joined the army in the expedition 
against the French in Canada. 

His wife, Mehitabel Buell, born August 22, 1682, 
was a descendant, in the third generation, of William 
Buell, who came to Dorchester, Massachusetts, from 

[144] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

Chesterton, Huntingdonshire, England, and later 
(1635) removed to Windsor, Connecticut. She died 
at or soon after the birth of her only child, Nathaniel 
Buell Porter. 

Nathaniel Buell Porter was born April 29, 
1704. He was a merchant in Lebanon, Connecticut, 
and died in Boston, Massachusetts, while there on 
business, November 4, 1739. 

His wife, Eunice Horton, was born about 1705, at 
Southold, Long Island, New York. She was a descend- 
ant, in the fourth generation, of Barnabas Horton, who 
was born (circa 1600) in Leicestershire, England, and 
came with his wife, Mary, and children to New Eng- 
land in the ship "Swallow," in 1635; was at New 
Haven, Connecticut, in 1640; and settled at Southold, 
Long Island, in October, 1640. [Horton's Point, Long 
Island, was, in all probability, named after him. — 
A. H. B.] 

Colonel (and Doctor) Joshua Porter graduated 
at Yale College in 1754, and settled at Salisbury, Con- 
necticut — a town that included the present "Lakeville." 
"He was elected to the State Legislature over forty ses- 
sions; judge of common pleas thirteen years, and of pro- 
bate thirty-seven years. In the war of the Revolution he 
was Colonel of the Fourteenth Connecticut Regiment, 
and was engaged in the battles of White Plains, Mon- 
mouth, Long Island, Saratoga, etc. He superintended 
the Iron Works at Salisbury, Connecticut; engaged in 

[145] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

the manufacture of cannon for the use of the army of 
the Revolution; was frequently on committees of the 
legislature; was charged with duties in the prosecution 
of the war, the manufacture of gunpowder, etc. He 
was one of the most active men in the country during 
the whole period of the critical existence of the nation. 
He died at his residence, Salisbury, Connecticut, April 
2, 1825, in his ninety-sixth year, in the full possession 
of his faculties to the last week of his life. 

[Copied from a sketch prepared by Albert H. Porter, 
of Niagara Falls, New York, a son of Judge Porter.] 

"Judge Augustus Porter, who was born January 
18, 1769, at Salisbury, Connecticut, and died at Niagara 
Falls, New York, June 10, 1849, was the second son 
of Doctor (and Colonel) Joshua Porter, in a family of 
three sons and three daughters. He received a common 
English education, including a course of mathematical 
instruction, and was well qualified for the business he 
had chosen — that of land surveying — and also for the 
successful application of water power and kindred en- 
terprises, requiring mechanical skill, in which he was 
for many years engaged. 

"In the spring of 1789, at the age of twenty years, 
he left his native state for Ontario (then Montgomery) 
County, in the State of New York, as a well-qualified 
surveyor, at first to survey lands in which his father 
held an interest, and afterwards in the same capacity 

[146] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 

in the employment of the original purchasers of the 
lands of Western New York from the State of Massa- 
chusetts. He was an assistant surveyor to Andrew 
Elliott, Surveyor General of the United States, in run- 
ning the line from Pennsylvania to Lake Ontario, as 
also of all the lands lying west of Seneca Lake, first sold 
by the State of Massachusetts to Phelps and Gorham, 
and afterward to Robert Morris, the great financier 
of the War of the Revolution. 



"In 1802, he was elected a member of the Assembly 
from Ontario County. He continued to reside at Can- 
andaigua until 1806, when he removed his family to 
Niagara Falls, New York, where he was the first per- 
manent settler. He was identified with Niagara during 
the remainder of his life. 

"In 1805, Augustus Porter, in connection with his 
brother, Peter B. Porter, and Benjamin Barton, pur- 
chased of the State of New York a large quantity of 
land in the State reservation along the Niagara River, 
including the water power and lands adjacent to the 
falls. 

"In connection with his associates, he immediately 
commenced building mills and making other improve- 
ments. They also built a number of vessels on Lakes 
Erie and Ontario, and, with suitable means for trans- 
portation around the falls and on the river, were the 

[147] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

chief forwarders between Oswego and the upper lakes 
previous to the War of 1812. 

"Their vessels were taken by the United States and 
used for public purposes during the war. On its con- 
clusion, the business was resumed and continued until 
the completion of the Erie canal, when transportation 
westward, by way of the Niagara River, was aban- 
doned. 

"In 1808, the County of Niagara, then inchiding 
Erie County, was organized, with Buffalo as the 
county seat, and Augustus Porter was appointed first 
judge, serving in that office for several years. 

"The dwellings, mills and other buildings at the 
falls were burned by the enemy in 1813, and the inhab- 
itants all fled from the frontier. 

"On the return of peace, in 18 15, Mr. Porter was 
engaged for some time in rebuilding his houses and 
mills, and in making other improvements. He was his 
own engineer in constructing the bridge across the 
rapids to Goat Island, a work at that time deemed very 
dangerous and difficult. 

"At an early day he fixed on a plan for an extended 
use of the great water power at Niagara Falls, and with 
this in view, retained an exclusive ownership of the 
land necessary for that purpose. His heirs have since 
caused this plan to be carried out, by extensive grants 
of land and water power of immense value, now fully 
developed. 

[148] 



BUCKS OF W E T H E R S F I E L D, CONN. 

"In 1821, Judge Porter was elected a member of 
the Convention for revising the Constitution of the 
State of New York. 

"In 1825, he took an active part in the construction 
of Black Rock harbor, and, in 1836, he was among the 
most liberal and efficient contributors to the Buffalo 
and Niagara Falls Railroad. 

"The latter years of his life were chiefly devoted 
to his private business, in the cultivation of his lands, 
and in various local improvements, with his character- 
istic energy, his mental faculties unimpaired, to the 
time of his decease in 1849, in the eighty-first year of 
his age. 

"He was a man of untiring industry, sterling integ- 
rity, and sound religious principles — the peer of the 
best men of a class for which Western New York was 
early distinguished. Of that section he had been a resi- 
dent for sixty years, witnessing and participating in its 
advance from the condition of Indian hunting-grounds 
to that of cultivated fields, pleasant homes and thriving 
villages and cities, inhabited by a numerous population, 
enjoying the blessings of a Christian cultivation. 

"Jane Howell, second wife of Judge Porter, was 
the descendant (in the sixth generation) of Edward 
Howell, of Southampton, Long Island, New York; 
and he, in turn, was the son of Henry Howell, of West- 
bury, Buckinghamshire, England. Mrs. Porter was 

[149] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 



born April 22, 1779, at Blooming Grove, New York; 
she died at Niagara Falls, January 31, 1841. 

"Albert Howell Porter was born in Canandaigua, 
New York, October 24, 1801 ; he graduated at Union 
College in the Class of 1820; and died at Niagara Falls, 
January 23, 1888. His wife, JULIA MATHEWS, was the 
daughter of General Vincent Mathews, of Rochester, 
New York, and Juliana Strong. 

"Albert Augustus Porter, son of the preceding, 
was born at Niagara Falls, May 4, 1837; he graduated 
at Amherst College in the Class of 1859; and died 
March 15, 1888, at his home in Niagara Falls. His 
wife was JULL^ G. JEFFREY, the daughter of Alexander 
Jeffrey, of Edinburgh, Scotland, and Delia Granger, 
of Canandaigua, New York. 

"At the present writing I am unable to give any spe- 
cial details with regard to the Jeffreys. They are 
known, however, to be one of the most distinguished 
of Scotch families. The genealogy of the Grangers is 
given on the next page. Gideon Granger, of Canan- 
daigua, New York, the great grandfather of Julia G. 
Jeffrey (Mrs. Albert Augustus Porter), was Postmaster 
General of the United States." 



[150] 



BUCKS OF WETHERSFIELD, CONN. 



II. Granger Genealogy. 
Launcelot Granger ("'^- J^" '♦ 



Born m England; date un- 
known. Went first to New- 
bury, Mass., and then in 1679 
to Suffield, Conn. Died 
Sept. 3, 1689. 



1654) Joanna Adams 

Born in England circa 1634. 
Died at Suffield, Conn., sub 
sequcntly to 1701. 



Samuel Granger ("^d. May i6, 1700) Esther Hanchett 

Born Aug. 1, 1678. 
Died May 21, 1721. 



^orn Augr2, 1668. 
Died April 22, 1721. 
Suffield, Conn. 



Samuel Granger 2D (^d. Nov. u, 1723) Mary Kent 

Born 1704. 



Born Aug. 13, 1702. 



Died March 6, 
Suffield, Conn. 



1790. 



Squire Gideon Granger 



Died Nov. 16, 1775. 



Tryphosa Kent 



Born Jan. 15, 1734. 
Died Oct. 30, 1800. 
Suffield, Conn. 



Gideon Gr.-\nger ("^^ J^" '''' '''^"^ Mindwell Pease 

Born Aug. 31, 1770. 
Died April 17, 1860. 



1767. 



Born July 19, 
Died Dec. 21, 1822. 
Canandaigua, N. Y. 
[Postmaster General, U. S.] 



John A. Granger 



? 



Born Sept 11, 1795. 



Died ? 

Delia Granger Alexander Jeffrey 

Julia Jeffrey (Mrs. Albert A. Porter), Niagara Falls, 
N. Y. (Mother of Mrs. Harold Winthrop Buck.) 

[151] 



CONTENTS 

Prefatory Remarks 3 

Part I — General Sketch, Chiefly Biographical 7 

Part II — Additional Memoranda Relating to the Bucks 39 

Part III — Reminiscences of Rev. Philippe Wolff 67 

Part IV — Genealogical Schemes of the Buck, Saltonstall, Man- 
waring, Wolff, etc.. Families 81 

Part V — More Recent Genealogy of the Descendants of John 

Auchincloss and Elizabeth Buck 120 

Part VI — Biographical and Genealogical Data Relating to the 

Abbotts 124 

Part VI I — Porter and Granger Genealogies 142 



[152] 



LIST of the PHOTOGRAPHS 

Accompanying 

Twelve of the Volumes Printed 



Fig. I. The Buck Homestead, at Wethersfield, 
Conn. (From a photograph taken in 1897.) The 
house was built in 1775. The plot of ground on 
which it stands was purchased in 1739. Although 
both the exterior and the interior of the building 
have been modernized in recent years, the structure 
as a whole remains the same as it was when first 
built. 



Fig. 2. Gordon Buck (1777-1853) at the age of 
about eighteen. (From a photographic copy of 
the miniature painting on ivory in the possession 
of Dr. Albert H. Buck.) 



Fig. 3. GURDON Buck (1777-1853) at the age of 
about twenty-eight. ( From a silhouette in the pos- 
session of Walter Buck, of Andover, Mass.) 



Fig. 4. GuRDON Buck (1777- 1853) at the age of 
about fifty. (From an oil painting in the posses- 
sion of Mrs. David Buck, of Boston, Mass.) 



Fig. 5. GuRDON Buck (1777-1853) at the age of 
sixty-one. (From a daguerreotype taken in 1848 
and now in the possession of Dr. Albert H. Buck.) 



Fig. 6. Susannah Manwaring (1783-1839), after- 
ward Mrs. Gurdon Buck, at age of about rvventy- 
two. (Copy of silhouette in the possession of Mrs. 
David Buck, of Boston, Mass.) 



Fig. 7. Summer Residence built at Fort Washing- 
ton (now i8ist St.), in 1838, by Gurdon Buck. 



Fig. 8. Dr. Gurdon Buck (1807-1877) at the age of 
about sixty-four. (From a photograph in the pos- 
session of the family.) 

Fig. 9. Mrs. Gurdon Buck (1810-1899) at the age 
of about sixty. (From a photograph in the posses- 
sion of the family.) 

Fig. 10. Henriette Elisabeth Wolff (afterward Mrs. 
Gurdon Buck) and her elder sister, Eliza (after- 
ward Mrs. Louis Brocher), in early childhood. 
(From a colored miniature in the possession of 
Miss Susan M. Buck.) 

Fig. II. The Wolff Homestead ("Pre Fleuri") in 
Geneva, Switzerland. (From a pencil sketch 
made by Helene Brocher, mother's niece.) Only 
one corner of the house can be seen (right side of 
the sketch) on account of the trees surrounding it. 



Fig. 12. Sir Richard Saltonstall (1586- 1 658), the 
first of the name who came to America in 1630, 
and the great grandfather of Gurdon Saltonstall, 
Governor of Connecticut. (Copied from the por- 
trait published in "Sir Richard Saltonstall," a 
book that was printed for private circulation.) 



Fig. 13. Gurdon Saltonstall (1666- 1 724), Gover- 
nor of Connecticut. ( From the portrait published 
in "Sir Richard Saltonstall," a book printed for 
private circulation.) 



Fig. 14. John Winthrop (1605- 1676), first Gover- 
nor under the charter after the union of Connecti- 
cut and New Haven Colonies. (Copied from an 
engraved portrait.) 



Fig. 15. Tomb OF Randle AND Margery Venables 
MainwarinG; life-size figures in alabaster. (From 
a photograph taken by Dr. Howard M.Buck.) Ac- 
cording to tradition this tomb was first erected in 
the churchyard at Over Peover, by the last humble 
request of Randle Mainwaring. — Vide "Sir 
Thomas Mainwaring," 1656. 



Fig. i6. South Chapel of Parish Church of St. 
Lawrence,OverPeover, Cheshire, England. (From 
a photograph taken by Dr. Howard M. Buck.) 
Built in 1456 as a chantry chapel, to cover the 
tomb of Randle, by his widow, Margery Venables. 
Randle was often spoken of as "Handekyn the 
Good." 



Fig. 17. St. Anne's Chapel, without the East Gate 
of the City of Exeter, England. Founded by 
Oliver and George Mannering (Manwaring) in 
the first and second years of the reign of Elizabeth. 
(From a photograph taken by Dr. Howard M. 
Buck.) 

Fig. 18. David Manwarlng (1741-1804), of New 
London, Conn., at the age of about sixty. (Copy 
of miniature in the possession of Winthrop Scud- 
der, of Boston, Mass.) 

Fig. 19. Mrs. David Manwaring (Martha Salton- 
stall) at age of about fifty-five. (Copy of minia- 
ture in the possession of Winthrop Scudder, of 
Boston, Mass.) 

Fig. 20. Market Place at Kunzelsau, Wurttem- 
BERG, on a festival day. This little city was the 
home of the Wolffs for over two hundred years. 



Fig. 21. Photograph, on a greatly reduced scale, of 
the Musical Diploma given to Johann Philippe 
Heinrich Wolff in 1761. The original is in the 
possession of Prof. John Elliot Wolff, of Harvard 
University, Cambridge, Mass. 

Fig. 22. FKANgorsE Elisabeth Barral, at age of 
twenty-seven, just before her marriage to Antoine 
Hauloch, of Geneva, Switzerland. (From a 
painting on enamel [dated 1784] now in the pos- 
session of Miss Susan M. Buck, of New York.) 

Fig. 23. Mrs. Antoine Hauloch (1757- 1846). 
(Copy of a charcoal sketch made, at a late period 
of her life, by her granddaughter, Mrs. Richard 
Monsell, younger sister of Mrs. Gurdon Buck. 
The original drawing is in the possession of Dr. 
Albert H. Buck.) 

Fig. 24. Mrs. Albert Henri Wolff (1790- 1878). 
(From a photograph taken when she was eighty 
years old.) 

Fig. 25. Philippe Henri Wolff (1818-1905), of 
Geneva, Switzerland, at the age of about eighteen. 
(From a charcoal drawing made by his sister Jen- 
nie, later, Mrs. Richard Monsell. The original 
drawing is in the possession of Dr. Albert H. Buck, 
of New York.) 



Fig. 26. Dr. Albert H. Buck, of New York. (From 
a photograph taken in 1906.) 



Fig. 27. Mrs. Albert H. Buck, with her two chil- 
dren, Winifred and Harold. (From a photograph 
taken about 1878 or 1879.) 



Fig. 28. Rev. John S. C. Abbott, D. D. ( 1805-1877). 
(From a photograph taken in 1872 or 1873.) 



Fig. 29. Rev. John S. C. Abbott at the age of twenty- 
five. (From a colored miniature portrait in the 
possession of Mrs. Lawrence F. Abbott, of New 

York.) 



Fig. 30. Mrs. John S. C. Abbott (Jane Williams 
Bourne). (1810-1896.) From a photograph 
taken when Mrs. Abbott was about sixty-five years 
old. 



Fig. 31. Jacob Abbot, Esq. (1776- 1 848). (Enlarged 
photographic copy of a daguerreotype taken in 
1847.) 



Fig. 32. Mrs. Abner Bourne (Abigail Williams). 
(1782-1845.) From an oil painting (by J. M. 
Leonard) in the possession of Mrs. Lawrence F. 
Abbott, of New York. At the time when the por- 
trait was painted Mrs. Bourne was thirty-nine 
years old. 



Fig. 33. Abner Bourne (1781-1840) at the age of 
forty. (From an oil painting made by J. M. 
Leonard in 1821, and now in the possession of 
Mrs. Lawrence F. Abbott, of New York.) 



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